page_title: Suwa-taisha
section_title: Lower Shrine
hierarchical_section_title: Suwa-taisha / History / Early history / Lower Shrine
caption_attribution_description: Suwa taisha Shimosha Harumiya , 諏訪大社 下社 春宮 第三之御柱
context_page_description: Suwa Grand Shrine, historically also known as Suwa Shrine or Suwa Daimyōjin, 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.
context_section_description: One theory suggests that the cult of the Lower Shrine may have originated from the worship of the kami of the nearby mountains and rivers. The Harumiya, one of the Lower Shrine's two component shrines, is located beside the Togawa River, which flows from the Yashimagahara Wetlands northwest of Kirigamine Plateau, where Moto-Misayama (旧御射山), the former sacred hunting grounds of the Lower Shrine, is situated.
  The Lower Shrine is also associated with a clan known as the Kanasashi (金刺, also read as 'Kanesashi' or 'Kanazashi'), the offshoot of a local magnate clan (kuni no miyatsuko) which eventually became the shrine's high priests. The Kanasashi are thought to have been originally district magistrates (郡領 gunryō) in charge of producing and collecting taxed goods and laborers to be sent to the central government in Yamato Province. Their seat of power seems to have been located near what is now the Lower Shrine, which was close to the important crossroads that led to the capital. Indeed, the Shimosha Akimiya may have started as a kind of ancestral shrine to the clan's forebears; it is located nearby Aozuka Kofun, a burial mound notable for being the only keyhole tomb in the Lake Suwa region and which may have been the grave of a Kanasashi clan member.
  The Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku mentions a Kanasashi, Sadanaga (貞長), receiving the kabane Ōason (大朝臣) in the year 863. A genealogy of the Lower Shrine's high priestly line records an elder brother of his, Masanaga (正長), who in addition to being the district governor (大領 dairyō) of Hanishina District, also held the title of Megamihōri (売神祝) or 'priest of the goddess'. The same title appears in a seal in the Lower Shrine's possession (designed as an Important Cultural Property in 1934) traditionally said to have been bequeathed by the Emperor Heizei (reigned 806-809). This shows that the shrine's deity - named 'Yasakatome' in imperial records - is already conceived of as a goddess in the 9th century.
  As Takeminakata, the Upper Shrine's god, rose up in rank, so did Yasakatome, so that by 867 CE, the goddess had been promoted to senior second rank (正二位).
caption: The Togawa River flowing beside the Shimosha Harumiya; one of the shrine's onbashira is visible in the middle.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6000", "Image ImageLength": "4000", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "ILCE-6000", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2015:04:11 10:00:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "412", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[0, 0, 2, 2]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[36, 4, 72231/1250]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[138, 4, 33609/625]", "GPS GPSAltitude": "167255/206", "Image GPSInfo": "1152", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7329", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:03:21 09:12:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:03:21 09:12:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "790241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "290241/62500", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "1983/320", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1067", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1120", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[10, 18, 4, 4]", "EXIF LensModel": "E 10-18mm F4 OSS"}