Sumiyoshi Tamagushi Legend

The Sumiyoshi Tamagushi legend connects the principal Sumiyoshi rite to the three Sumiyoshi deities (Sokotsutsu-no-O, Nakatsutsu-no-O, Uwatsutsu-no-O) and to Empress Jingu, whose pre-regency record in the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) describes the deities entering trance and instructing the expedition to Silla. After her return, the Sumiyoshi deities are enshrined at Sumiyoshi in Settsu. The tamagushi - a sakaki branch with paper streamers - offered in formal worship traces its ritual lineage to Jingu's report of victory, and tamagushi-hosho stands at the core of the shrine's ceremonies. The narrative has three stages: divine possession and oracle after the death of Emperor Chuai; the empress's crossing and campaign; and the establishment of Sumiyoshi worship with the tamagushi rite as its standard. The site is Sumiyoshi Taisha in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, listed in the Engishiki Jinmyocho (927 CE) as Sumiyoshi Niimasu Jinja Yonza, a myojin taisha and ichinomiya of Settsu Province. With Sumiyoshi Shrines in Fukuoka and Shimonoseki it forms the three great Sumiyoshi shrines; the four main halls (sumiyoshi-zukuri) are National Treasures. Sources include the Nihon Shoki, the Kojiki Chuai chapter, the Engishiki Jinmyocho, the Sumiyoshi Taisha Jindaiki (early Heian), and Sumiyoshi-related Man'yoshu poems.