Kumenomiagata-jinja Shrine (久米御縣神社)
Kumenomiagata-jinja Shrine is located in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture. It was a Shikinai-sha (shrine listed in ancient Engishiki laws) and was categorized as a sonsha (a village shrine) in the old shrine ranking.
Enshrined Deity
The shrine enshrines Takamimusubi, Okunome no mikoto (Amatsukume no mikoto) and Amanokushine no mikoto.
In the "Gogun Jinja-ki" (Record of Shrines in Five Counties), the god is referred to with the name 'Amatsukume-Okunome no mikoto'. However, in the "Shikinai-sha Chosa Hokoku-sho" (Shikinai-sha Survey Report), it is believed that although originally one god, it was divided into two in recent times.
Okunome no mikoto is a soshin (an ancestor honored as god) of Kumebe. The area (Kurumemura Village) where Kumebe used to live also houses the shrine where Kumebe's ancestors are enshrined.
History
The history of its foundation is unknown. There were seven shrines called 'Miagata-jinja Shrine' in Yamato Province, and all of them were enshrined in Miagata as goryochi (Imperial estates). Since there is a passage in the "Nihonshoki" (Chronicles of Japan) written in 3 B.C. saying that 'Miyake (Imperial-controlled territory) was founded in Kurumemura Village that year', the shrine is thought to have been founded at around that time.
It is listed as a 'Kumenomiagata-jinja Shrine Sanza in Takaichi-gun, Yamato Province' in the Engishiki jimmyocho (a register of shrines in Japan) and is categorized as a small shrine. Although all the other six Miagata-jinja Shrines are listed in the Engishiki Kinen Norito (Prayer for Good Harvests), Kumenomiagata-jinja Shrine is not listed.
With the fall of the Kume clan, the shrine also fell into decline. However, when Kume-dera Temple was founded next to the shrine, it was later reconstructed as a Chinju-sha shrine (Shinto shrine on temple grounds dedicated to the tutelary deity of the area). It started to be referred to as 'Tenman-gu Shrine' or 'Ten-jinja Shrine' from the mid Edo period. Today, many stone lanterns inscribed with 'Tenman-gu Shrine' or 'Ten-jinja Shrine' remain.
When Buddhism and Shintoism split in 1868, the shrine separated from Kume-dera Temple and the name was changed to Kumenomiagata-jinja Shrine in the mid Meiji period.