Abe no Seimei Shrine

Abe no Seimei Shrine enshrines the onmyoji Abe no Seimei and is the place tradition holds he was born. Legend has it that Abe no Seimei was born to Abe no Yasuna, a powerful local figure of Abeno, and a white fox who gave her name as Kuzunoha. When it came out that Kuzunoha was really a white fox, she left a poem written on the paper sliding door, and it is extremely well known: 'If you long for me, come and seek me out, the rueful kuzunoha leaf of the forest of Shinoda in Izumi.' Shrine tradition says that Abe no Seimei Shrine was founded in Kanko 4 (1007), two years after Seimei's death. In the grounds are a monument built in the Bunsei era of the Edo period marking the place of Seimei's birth and the remains of the bath he was washed in at birth; the shrine flourished greatly, but declined at the end of the Edo period. In Taisho 10 (1921) it was revived as a subsidiary shrine of Abe-oji Shrine, 50 m to the south, and the present shrine building is said to have been put up in Taisho 14 (1925). A fortune-telling corner is run in the grounds.

Translated and shortened from the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City tourist listings (観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).