Suwa-taisha
Shinto shrine in Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Suwa Grand Shrine (Japanese: 諏訪大社, Hepburn: Suwa-taisha), historically also known as Suwa Shrine (諏訪神社 Suwa-jinja) or Suwa Daimyōjin (諏訪大明神), is a group of Shinto shrines in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The shrine complex is the ichinomiya of former Shinano Province and is considered to be one of the oldest shrines in existence, being implied by the Nihon Shoki to already stand in the late 7th century.
Overview
The entire Suwa shrine complex consists of four main shrines grouped into two sites: the Upper Shrine or Kamisha (上社), comprising the Maemiya (前宮, former shrine) and the Honmiya (本宮, main shrine), and the Lower Shrine or Shimosha (下社), comprising the Harumiya (春宮, spring shrine) and the Akimiya (秋宮, autumn shrine). The Upper Shrine is located on the south side of Lake Suwa, in the cities of Chino and Suwa, while the Lower Shrine is on the northern side of the lake, in the town of Shimosuwa.
In addition to these four main shrines, some sixty other auxiliary shrines scattered throughout the Lake Suwa area (ranging from miniature stone structures to medium to large sized edifices and compounds) are also part of the shrine complex. These are the focus of certain rituals in the shrine's religious calendar.
Historically, the Upper and the Lower Shrines have been two separate entities, each with its own set of shrines and religious ceremonies. The existence of two main sites, each one having a system parallel to but completely different from the other, complicates a study of the Suwa belief system as a whole. One circumstance that simplifies the matter somewhat, however, is that very little documentation for the Lower Shrine has been preserved; almost all extant historical and ritual documents regarding Suwa Shrine extant today are those of the Upper Shrine.
Deities
The Upper and Lower Shrines of Suwa were historically associated with a male and female kami, respectively.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Suwa-taisha” as shinto shrine in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as shinto shrine in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q218813. VIAF identifies the subject as 134881227. The Library of Congress control number is n81122722. Authority coordinates are 36.075, 138.091. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Suwa-taisha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.