Nagasaki Suwa-jinja

Nagasaki Suwa Shrine (Chinzei Taisha Suwa-jinja) stands in Kami-Nishiyama-machi, Nagasaki City, on the western slope of Mount Tamazono, and serves as the general tutelary of Nagasaki. The shrine enshrines the three deities Suwa-no-Okami (Takeminakata-no-Kami), Morisaki-no-Okami (Izanagi and Izanami), and Sumiyoshi-no-Okami (the three Sumiyoshi maritime deities). Takeminakata is recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) Land-of-Reeds transfer section as the offspring of Okuninushi-no-Kami who retreated to Suwa. According to shrine records, the shrine was founded in 1625 by the Nagasaki magistrate Mizuno Morinobu and the founding priest Aoki Kataki as part of the early Edo policy against Christianity, combining three existing shrines. It moved to its present Tamazono-yama site in 1648 and was elevated to kokuhei chusha rank in 1871. The Nagasaki Kunchi festival (October 7-9), tracing back to 1634, is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.