Sumiyoshi Taisha

photo by Saigen Jiro · CC0

photo by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

Three halls in a row and the fourth beside them: no other shrine is laid out like this.

The four main halls stand neither in a circle nor in a cross: the first three in a line, one behind the other, and the fourth set beside the third, and there is no other in Japan laid out like this. They all face west, towards Osaka Bay. Roofs of cypress bark, pillars lacquered red, white gofun walls.

It is the head shrine of the roughly 2,300 Sumiyoshi shrines scattered across Japan. The four present halls date from 1810 and were designated a National Treasure on 14 November 1953: they preserve sumiyoshi-zukuri, a gabled style with the entrance on the short side and no outer veranda.

ℹ️ Free entry. The gates open at 6:00 from April to September and at 6:30 from October to March, always at 6:00 on the first day of the month; the outer gates close at 16:00, the inner grounds at 17:00. The amulet counter is open 9:00–17:00. Three minutes on foot from Sumiyoshi Taisha Station on the Nankai Honsen; on the Hankai tram you get off in front of the torii, the gate that marks the entrance to the shrine.

🚉 Sumiyoshitaisha · 5 min walk

Sources: sumiyoshitaisha.net · sumiyoshitaisha.net · sumiyoshitaisha.net

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