Visiting Tanabata-jinja, Ogori, Fukuoka

In the evening, we went to a Shinto shrine named Tanabata-jinja (七夕神社) in Ogori. This is very unusual Shinto shrine in Japan that believes in Orihime (織姫), a Chinese folk tale.

Why did the shrine get its name? In the history of the old Hizen province around 730, the shrine was already established in this area at that time. In addition, there is a list of delivered goods to be presented to the court from various places in the book called the Engi-shiki (延喜式) style ceremony which is over a thousand years ago from now. According to it, the deliverable of the old Chikugo province including Ogori are rice and woven fabrics, which indicates that fabrics were very popular in this region. Furthermore, people who have been involved in fabric since ancient times believed in  the waving goddess called as the Tanabata-tsume (棚機津女) as a god of textiles. It is believed that the faith of the waiver maiden and the tale of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl from China assimilated and became popular as the Tanabata shrine believing the god of fabric.

Statues of the cowherd and the weaver girl (織姫と彦星 orihime-to-hikoboshi) at the entrance of the shrine.

The sando that leads to the hall of worship. The name plate of the first torii gate is written as Himekoso-jinja (媛社神社).　

Before going to the main shrine, I washed my hands at Chozuya (手水舎).

Honden or the main shrine.

The reproduction of the tale of tanabata made under the big top sign of the shrine.

After that we want to go to the Oimatsu Shrine (老松神社 -jinja) near here, but we don't have enough time to visit. May be next time.