Osumi Shrine

About 1,700 years ago Emperor Ojin kept a detached palace, the Osumi no Miya, on this island of Osumi, and after he died the villagers, who revered his virtue, built a shrine on the site of the palace. That is held to be the origin. One year the Yodo River flooded and the sacred body of Kamo Myojin drifted ashore giving off a holy light. The villagers took it in and enshrined it together with the local birth deity, changed the shrine name to Kamo Shinshi and divided the hall in two. The grounds, more than 3,000 tsubo or about a hectare, were thick with cedar and pine and the buildings were splendid, but in the first years of Meiji the surrounding land was sold off into private hands. Emperor Ojin was then made the principal deity and the name changed to Osumi Shrine. There are many komainu and stone lanterns in the precincts because Inau Shrine and others were merged into it. A hall of offerings was added in 1904 and the worship hall was restored and rebuilt, with a row of komainu standing in front of it.

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