Sumiyoshi Taisha

Sumiyoshi Taisha is one of the oldest and most important Shinto shrines in Japan, and one of the most rewarding sights in Osaka for anyone who wants to step outside the city's busy center. Tradition dates its founding to around 1,800 years ago, to the legendary Empress Jingu, who is said to have enshrined the three Sumiyoshi gods, deities of the sea, in thanks for safe passage on a voyage. Because those gods protect seafarers, fishermen and travelers, Sumiyoshi became the head shrine of a network of about 2,300 Sumiyoshi shrines across the country, and it was once the chief shrine of the old province of Settsu. Its four main sanctuaries are among the most important buildings in Japanese religious architecture: built in the Sumiyoshi-zukuri style, one of the oldest shrine styles, which predates the arrival of Buddhist influence, they have straight, steeply pitched roofs with crossed finials, vermilion-painted walls and white trim, and are designated National Treasures. Unusually, three of the halls stand one behind another in a line, as if a fleet were sailing out to sea, with the fourth beside them. You approach across the Sorihashi, a steep, half-moon arched bridge over a pond, which is the shrine's emblem; crossing it is said to purify you. Around the main halls are dozens of auxiliary shrines, stone lanterns donated by shipping merchants and camphor trees hundreds of years old. The grounds are free and open from early morning to late afternoon every day.

Sumiyoshi is the place to experience how Osaka itself worships. Over the first three days of the year it draws more than two million people for hatsumode, the New Year shrine visit, one of the largest crowds in western Japan, so avoid early January unless you want the spectacle. At other times it is a peaceful, local shrine, busiest on weekend mornings with families bringing babies and children for blessings. Look for the Hatsutatsu custom, in which worshippers make a round of small sub-shrines in the grounds on the first Day of the Dragon each month to pray for prosperity, collecting small beckoning-cat figures over the years, and for the small stones inscribed with the characters for five, great and strength, which visitors search for in a sacred enclosure as good-luck charms.

The shrine's calendar is rich. In mid-June, the Otaue rice-planting festival sees women in traditional dress plant the shrine's sacred rice field to music and dance, one of the most beautiful rites of its kind, and in late July and early August the Sumiyoshi summer festival brings portable shrine processions through the neighborhood. In any season, the arched bridge is a lovely photograph, steepest when you try to walk it; there are steps cut into the slope, but take care when it is wet. Shrine etiquette applies: bow at the torii, purify your hands at the water basin, and at the offering hall toss a coin, bow twice, clap twice and bow once more.

Getting there is part of the charm. The Hankai tram line, the last surviving streetcar line in Osaka, runs from Tennoji past Sumiyoshi Taisha and stops at Sumiyoshi Toriimae, right outside the main torii; it is a slow, nostalgic ride through old neighborhoods. Alternatively, Nankai's Sumiyoshitaisha Station is about three minutes away, around ten minutes from Namba. Allow an hour at the shrine, and combine it with Shitennoji and Tennoji for a day of old Osaka, or with Sakai, a short ride south, where the giant keyhole-shaped burial mound of Emperor Nintoku is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.