Omiwa Shrine

Omiwa Shrine (大神神社) is a Shinto shrine in Miwa, Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, the first-ranked shrine of the former Yamato Province. The principal kami is Omononushi-no-Okami, recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as having appeared in the dream of Emperor Sujin during a plague and demanding to be enshrined by his descendant Otataneko, and identified as the nigi-mitama (gentle spirit) of Okuninushi. The shrine takes the conical Mount Miwa (467 m) as its sacred body and has no main hall, retaining the ancient kannabi form of nature veneration in which worshippers face Mount Miwa across the three-pillar torii. The shrine is listed as a Myojin-Taisha in the Engishiki Jinmyocho (927 CE), and the Spring Omiwa Festival (hanashizume-no-matsuri) of 9 April preserves the ancient plague-pacification rite, with the November Sake Festival drawing devotion from sake brewers.