Shinto shrines · The temple and shrine corporations · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Atsuta shrine

Atsuta shrine, at the mouth of the rivers of Owari on the road along the head of Ise bay, keeps the sacred sword Kusanagi, one of the three regalia.

The English page says the sword was presumed lost at Dan-no-ura in 1185, though the shrine says it stayed at Atsuta; the court has since made do with another sword. Since 1114 the shrine has been led by the Fujiwara, the old Owari clan serving as deputy. The Fujiwara great priests are the kin of the Minamoto: Yoritomo's mother was the daughter of the great priest Suenori, and the Ashikaga share the descent, so the shrine is a quiet friend of Kamakura.

Yoritomo is said to have prayed here before his rising (English page: undated). The shrine's town, at the crossing of the Tōkaidō and the sea road to Kuwana, gives it market and ferry dues.

Who holds it

Name
not pinned for 1200
Title
Great priest (daiguji) of the Fujiwara line; the Owari clan as deputy (gongūji)
Since
The Fujiwara have led the shrine since 1114, when Owari Kazumoto passed the high priesthood to Fujiwara no Suenori (English Wikipedia)
Family
Suenori is Yoritomo's maternal grandfather (recalled); the English Ashikaga page adds that Ashikaga Yoshikane's mother was an adopted daughter and granddaughter of Suenori. The daiguji of 1200 is not named in any source we opened.
Confidence
medium on the line, low on the man

English Wikipedia (Atsuta Shrine); the Ashikaga page; the Yoritomo link is recalled.

Overlord

The emperor in his regalia; the court's governor of Owari; Kamakura as the Minamoto's friend

What it holds

  • The shrine, its town and ferry landing at Atsuta (Miya)
  • Shrine estates in Owari and ricefields (the page mentions shrine-owned ricefields without dates)
  • The Kusanagi sword, if it is here (disputed)

How it was acquired

By the old Owari lords' gift; led by the Fujiwara since 1114.

Allies and rivals

Friends of Kamakura; the court's governor of Owari is the nominal superior.

How things stand that morning

Quiet; honoured; kin to the Minamoto.

Wealth

Rice, ferry and market dues; offerings; no figure.

Military

The shrine's own guard; no numbers.

Threats

  • A fire; stewards' encroachment

Places of note

  • Atsuta ferry: The sea crossing to Kuwana (recalled from later diaries)

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board's Atsuta (35.128 136.909) is the shrine: accepted. The English page does not use 'daiguji' or mention Yoritomo's mother.

Evidence: One English page and the Ashikaga page.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Small block.

Primary sources for Temple powers (west)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
  • Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
  • Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
  • Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
  • Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
  • The Tale of the Heike, Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, performed and reshaped by blind reciters (early thirteenth century in its first form; the standard Kakuichi text was fixed in 1371). The epic of the Genpei war, in the form the reciters gave it over the century after 1200. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. KJA_BRIEF.md and the OMNIA board for sheet kja (the lead's notes: [own] computation, [not yet checked against the source] recollection, [en] English Wikipedia)
  2. Azuma Kagami (the Kamakura chronicle), Kenkyu 10 to Shoji 2 entries, recalled and through the brief; ja.wikipedia and ja.wikisource were refused in this session, so no entry was re-read
  3. Jeffrey P. Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (1974), from memory; the archive.org full text could not be opened
  4. English Wikipedia: Atsuta Shrine (read this session; thin)
  5. English Wikipedia: Ashikaga Yoshikane (read this session; thin)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.