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

Suwa shrine

Suwa is the great shrine of Shinano, its Ichinomiya by the late Heian age.

It has four sites: the Upper Shrine (Kamisha) with the Maemiya and the Honmiya, and the Lower Shrine (Shimosha) with the Harumiya and the Akimiya. The Upper Shrine's chief priest, the ōhōri, is of the Suwa clan and is held to be the living body of the god; Yoritomo cited the ōhōri's authority in 1186 (English Wikipedia). Many Suwa kin become Kamakura's housemen, and the Hōjō will later back the cult.

The cycle of the Onbashira, the felling and raising of great pillars, falls in the Monkey and Tiger years every sixth year; 1200 is a Monkey year, so one is due in 1200 (the page gives no early records, so whether the 1200 rite was held is not known). The shrine sits on the upper Chikuma and Tenryū road between Shinano and Kai.

Who holds it

Name
not pinned for 1200
Title
The Upper Shrine's living-god priest (ōhōri) of the Suwa clan; the Lower Shrine's priests of the Kanasashi line
Since
not applicable
Family
The Moriya family (Jinchō) holds a senior ritual role; the Kanasashi descend from local magnate officials (English Wikipedia). The Kanasashi are recalled as allies of Kiso Yoshinaka who were broken in 1183 to 1184.
Confidence
medium on the structure, low on the men

English Wikipedia (Suwa Taisha).

Overlord

The emperor (rank); Kamakura as protector; the Shinano constable (Hiki, recalled)

What it holds

  • The Upper and Lower shrines of Suwa and their estates
  • Rights over the Suwa district (not itemised)

How it was acquired

By old cult; rank raised by the court over the ninth century.

Allies and rivals

Allied with Kamakura (Yoritomo's recognition in 1186); the Kanasashi were on the other side in 1183.

How things stand that morning

A year of the Onbashira cycle; otherwise quiet.

Wealth

Estates in Suwa and beyond, offerings; no figure.

Military

The Suwa kin as warriors; no numbers.

Threats

  • Stewards; the memory of 1183

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Shōji 2/3 to 5 (spring 1200), if heldThe Onbashira of the Monkey year: felling at Yatsugatake and hauling of pillars.Depends on: The shrine's keeping the cycle; peace in Shinano Stopped by: War or famine; no record is known to me

Where the sources disagree

  • The Onbashira inference is mine from the page's cycle (Tiger and Monkey years); the page gives no medieval records.

Evidence: One English page.

On the map: Home district only.

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: Suwa Taisha (read this session; thin)

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