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

Izumo Taisha

The great shrine on the plain below the Yakumo hills in western Izumo, held by the old provincial family whose head is priest and the governor-priest (kokuzō) of the province.

A record of about 950 gives a very tall hall, about 48 m, and English Wikipedia says the main structure was reduced in size around 1200; older records say the hall fell more than once [not yet checked against the source]. Excavated pillar bundles found in 2000 lend the tradition weight (the same page). Beside Ise it is the chief cult of the old chronicles, and its myth cycle is the Izumo part of the Kojiki [not yet checked against the source].

Who holds it

Name
not known for 1 January 1200
Title
The Izumo kokuzō (governor-priest of the old Izumo line), descended from Amenohohi-no-mikoto
Family
One line; it splits into Senge and Kitajima around 1340 (English Wikipedia)
Confidence
medium

English Wikipedia (Izumo-taisha).

Overlord

none in law; Izumo's governor is the court's

What it holds

  • The shrine and the district about it (Taisha)
  • Estates in Izumo and Iwami [not yet checked against the source]

How things stand that morning

At peace; the great hall is of a lower build than the legend.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry id izumo-taisha speaks of the priestly house of Izumo no Omi. The family is that of the Izumo kokuzō; we use the English Wikipedia term. The pillar find of 2000 is dated by the page to no year and we do not use 1248.

Evidence: English Wikipedia (Izumo-taisha) for the priestly line and the hall; the estates are recollection.

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

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. OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
  2. OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
  3. Izumo-taisha, English Wikipedia

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