Ikune Shrine

Ikune Shrine is said to give protection against stroke and against senility. It began when the divided spirit of Sukunahikona no Kami was invited from Ikune Shrine, known as Oku no Tenjin, an auxiliary shrine of Sumiyoshi Taisha, and enshrined as the tutelary deity of Tamade in the village of Kotsuma. The area around Nishinari Ward in Osaka was long called Kotsuma, and the kotsuma pumpkin is its local product: small in form but firm in flesh and good in flavour. People once ate the pumpkins they had stored through the winter, when vegetables were scarce, to make up for a lack of carotene and iron. On the winter solstice the shrine holds the Kotsuma Pumpkin Festival, at which steamed pumpkin with a sweet azuki bean sauce is served to worshippers; eating it is believed to guard against stroke and senility. On 24 and 25 July the shrine holds the Daigaku Festival, said to have begun in the time of Emperor Seiwa, around 858, to express thanks when prayers for rain were answered. A large group of young men carry the Tamade daigaku, a tangible cultural property of the prefecture, and at night 79 paper lanterns on it are lit, a vivid sight.

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

Osaka Prefecture's list of designated cultural properties names this place as the owner of 1. Objects are not necessarily on view.

大阪府 文化財一覧 (CC BY 4.0), current at 2024-05-01. Joined by owner name; long names are shortened to the buildings or the object.