Tamahime Shrine
[About the New Year holidays]
・You can purchase charms and other items every day, even during the New Year holidays. You can also visit the shrine at any time. The shrine will be crowded during the New Year holidays, so please help ease congestion by carpooling, etc.
Located along National Route 430, the shrine is home to a large rock called "Tateishi" that welcomes worshippers as soon as they step inside the shrine grounds. This area used to be an inlet, and "Tateishi" stood in the sea. People would often stop their boats here to visit this unusual huge rock. The deity enshrined here is Toyotamahime-no-mikoto (Otohime from the legend of Ryugu-jo Castle).
basic information
- address
- 5-1-17 Tama, Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture
- access
-
- train
- From Okayama Station (JR Uno Line bound for Uno Station), take the train to Uno Station (50 minutes). From Uno Station, take the bus (15 minutes).
- bus
- About 60 minutes from Okayama city
- parking
- Free parking available
- Deity
- The shrine enshrines Toyotamahime (the Princess of the Dragon Palace). According to the "Nihon Shoki," she married Yamasachihiko and transformed into a dragon when she gave birth. She has been worshipped since ancient times not only as the guardian deity of the sea, but also as the deity of safe childbirth.
- About Tateishi
- The "Tateishi" is surrounded by a moat, and the rock is 10.6m high (equivalent to the height of a three-story building) with a circumference of 29.4m. It is said to have been named "Tateishi" (standing stone) because of the way it stands, but there is also a story that it was given the name "Gamaishi" (jeweled stone) because the rock is shaped like a jewel.
- About the legend
- It is said that one night, three fireballs shot out from the rock, one to the inner shrine of Garyu Inari Shrine halfway up nearby Mount Garyu, another to the Kannon of Saidaiji Temple, and the third to faraway Ushimado, and the spot where the fireballs came out is still round and shaped like a sun disk. For this reason, it has long been revered by local people as a miraculous being, and it has become a power spot where many worshippers visit every day.
- Inari Shrine Okumiya
- About a five-minute walk up the mountain path from the shrine grounds, you will come to the Okumiya (inner shrine) of Garyu Inari Shrine, which according to legend is the place where a fireball shot out from a standing stone and landed.
From here you can get a panoramic view of the townscape of Tamano City's Tama district.
- Amulets
- We have "support ropes" made from the actual support ropes used at launching ceremonies when new ships are launched into the sea for the first time, and these are available for purchase inside the main hall.
The charms come in three types: with a strap, a case, or a glass bead. They are popular as a keepsake of a visit to the shrine or as a gift for a loved one.
- inquiry
- 0863-31-6805
