In front of you is Nonomiya, a small shrine with a very big story. Look at its torii: it is made of oak with the bark left on, a very ancient form that is now extremely rare, known as a kuroki torii, a “black wood torii”.

1The princesses of Ise

For centuries, each new emperor chose an unmarried princess of the imperial family, the saiō, to serve on his behalf at the great shrine of Ise. Before setting off, the princess spent a long period of purification in an isolated enclosure on the edge of the capital, called a nonomiya. This shrine stands on one of those sites, which was fixed here from the time of Emperor Saga, in the early 9th century. The institution died out in the 14th century, and the shrine went through years of neglect.

2A ghost in “Genji”

In the “Sakaki” chapter of “The Tale of Genji”, written by Murasaki Shikibu around the year 1000, Prince Genji comes here to say goodbye to Lady Rokujō, his former lover, who is about to go to Ise with her daughter, the new saiō. It is a farewell heavy with guilt: in an earlier chapter, Rokujō’s jealous spirit, leaving her body as she slept, has tormented Genji’s wife to death. The scene later inspired the Noh play “Nonomiya”.

Rokujō’s ghost is literary fiction, but the purification enclosure of the saiō was a real institution.

Today people come mainly to pray for a partner, good grades and a safe birth.

3What to look for

  • The bark-covered torii, its wood left unpolished.
  • The low brushwood fence, which recalls the one in “Genji”.
  • The turtle stone, which people stroke when making a wish.
Kawase Hasui print of Nonomiya Shrine at night, among trees
Nonomiya in a print by Kawase Hasui, from the series “Nihon fūkei senshū”.

Documented

Nonomiya stands on one of the enclosures where the saiō princesses purified themselves before going to Ise, an institution that died out in the 14th century, and it is the setting of the “Sakaki” chapter of “The Tale of Genji”.

Oral tradition

Lady Rokujō’s vengeful spirit belongs to the fiction of “The Tale of Genji”; the traditional founding date, 809, is not documented.

Sources and credits

Nonomiya Shrine, official website; Murasaki Shikibu, “The Tale of Genji”, “Sakaki” chapter (c. 1000–1010); Royall Tyler, translation and notes of “The Tale of Genji” (2001).

Photos:

  • The bark-covered wooden torii of Nonomiya Shrine, with a sacred rope: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, CC BY 4.0.
  • Kawase Hasui print of Nonomiya Shrine at night, among trees: Kawase Hasui, Dominio público.

Spotted a mistake? Drop us a line and we’ll look into it.