[2025 Chino Attraction] Travel Guide for Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya Honden (Updated May)

Famous for its Onbashira Festival, held once every seven years, Suwa Taisha Shrine is the Ichinomiya (first shrine) of Shinano Province and has 10,000 branch shrines across the country. There are four shrines - Kamisha (Maemiya, Honmiya) to the south of Lake Suwa and Shimosha (Harumiya, Akimiya) to the north - and it is popular to visit all four shrines at once. The "mae" shrine of Kamisha Maemiya was said to have been located "before" Kamisha Honmiya. It is about 10 minutes from Suwa IC and is easily accessible by car. As soon as you pass through the torii gate from the shrine's parking lot, the road starts to go uphill, and the main shrine is on even higher ground. A clear stream (sui-ga) flows to the left of the main shrine, and you can purify your hands in the stream's water. The Onbashira pillars that have been pulled during the Onbashira Festival are erected in the four corners of the main shrine. The sacred tree is over 200 years old and has a diameter of over 1m. Its size and smooth, shiny surface make it overwhelmingly divine. However, the underside of the pillar is thorny. From the forest where it was cut down to Suwa Taisha, it is about 20km for the upper shrine and 12km for the lower shrine, and the sacred tree weighing over 10 tons is transported by hand across rivers and mountains. This is the Onbashira Festival, which is held once every seven years. The marks left by the hauling are clearly visible as thorny marks on the underside. It is a culmination of the strength of the people, and is definitely worth seeing. Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya feels like a shrine carved out into the forest, and I think that out of the four shrines, it is the shrine where you can feel the most close to nature. It is definitely a power spot. Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya: Address: Miyagawa 2030, Chino City, Nagano Prefecture Access: 2.5km (10 minutes) from Suwa IC Seal: 9am-4pm (More than 20 people were lined up because it was Golden Week) #Prayer #Suwa #Suwa Taisha #Shrine

Location: Kamisha Honmiya/1 Nakasu Miyayama, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Suwa Taisha is a shrine with four precincts around Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture. It is the head shrine of all Suwa shrines across the country and is considered one of the oldest shrines in the country. There is a shopping street right in front of the shrine where you can buy local beer and souvenirs. #trip2022#Nagano Prefecture

📍Location: Suwa Taisha, Nagano Prefecture Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya Suwa Taisha Kamisha Main Shrine Suwa Taisha Shimosha Harumiya Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya I recommend visiting all four shrines! They are not all close to each other, so it is convenient to have a car! 🕰️Opening hours: You can visit in the morning, but the shrine office opens at 8:30😊 A shrine rich in nature and with clear air⛩️ Suwa Taisha is also famous historically and has ties to Izumo. It is a shrine with history and romance, with emperors and military commanders from long ago praying there😎 It is also the setting for the manga Nige-Jouzu no Waka-Kimi, so I think people who have read it will enjoy it even more❤️

Suwa Taisha is famous for the Onbashira Festival, which takes place in the spring and fall. You've probably seen a festival where people straddle a large onbashira and slide down a slope before. Suwa Taisha is said to be one of the oldest shrines in Japan. It consists of four shrine buildings (Kamisha Honmiya, Kamisha Maemiya, Shimosha Harumiya, and Shimosha Akimiya), each with its own history and characteristics. They are all quite far apart, so you'll need a car to visit them all. This time we went to one of them, Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya. This is the starting point of Suwa Taisha. There were also onbashira pillars within the grounds. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya 📍 Miyagawa 2030, Chino City, Nagano Prefecture ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Domestic travel trip #Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya #Suwa Taisha #Chino City

I visited Suwa Taisha Shrine in Nagano Prefecture. I enjoyed the historic buildings, the nature, and the laid-back atmosphere that you can't find in the city.

Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture 𓂃◌𓈒𓐍 𓂃◌𓈒𓐍𓂃◌𓈒𓐍𓂃 Suwa Taisha has four shrines: Kamisha Main Shrine, Maemiya, Shimosha Spring Shrine, and Akimiya. Maemiya is said to be the birthplace of Suwa faith because it is the place where the enshrined deity, Takeminakata no Kami, first lived. Compared to the main shrine, the grounds look very simple, but it is the place where the Kamisha rituals have been held since ancient times. Mount Moriya, the object of worship, stands quite far back in the worship hall of the Maemiya. If you turn in another direction, you can see the Yatsugatake mountain range. Maemiya has four pillars surrounding the main shrine. The pillars are in the easiest place to see and touch. ✼••┈┈┈┈••✼••┈┈┈┈••✼••┈┈┈┈••✼ ꕥShrine name: Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya ꕥAddress: Miyagawa 2030, Chino City, Nagano Prefecture ꕥAccess: 🚉 Chino Station → approx. 36 minutes walk ✼••┈┈┈┈••✼••┈┈┈┈••✼••┈┈┈┈••✼ #Sakura2024 #Suwa Taisha #Nagano Trip #Nagano Sightseeing #Shrine Tour

●Name Suwa Taisha Kamisha Maemiya ●Access 〠2030 Miyagawa, Chino City, Nagano Prefecture 🚗Private parking available ●Points Kamisha Maemiya is the only one of the four Suwa shrines that has a main hall It is located on a sunny hill on the south side of Lake Suwa, where pure water flows It is said to be the birthplace of Suwa faith, where the enshrined deity first lived The main hall is about a 7-minute walk up a slight slope from the torii gate at the entrance The current shrine building seems to have been built using old materials received from Ise Grand Shrine Another feature of this shrine is the four fir trees that surround the main hall #Nagano Tourism #Temples and Shrines

\\One of the four Suwa Taisha shrines// It is the head shrine of all Suwa shrines in Japan and one of the oldest shrines in Japan. It is made up of four shrines: the Kamisha Shrine, Maemiya, and Honmiya, with the Shimosha Shrine, Harumiya, and Akimiya, to the north of Lake Suwa. The shrine is famous for the Onbashira Festival, which is held once every seven years. It is located on high ground, so although it is relatively gentle, there is a continuous uphill slope. Maemiya is said to be the birthplace of Suwa faith. This is the only place where you can touch all four Onbashira. It was a spectacular Onbashira, wasn't it? Facility name📍 Suwa Taisha Maemiya Address📍 Miyagawa 2030, Chino City Access📍 1.7km from Suwa Taisha Kamisha Honmiya | 5 minutes by car, 20 minutes on foot, 2.4km from JR Chino Station Visit date: August 2023 #Shrine tour #Shrines and temples#Kamisuwa Taisha Maemiya #Suwa Taisha #Historic site#Lake Suwa #Suwa #Nagano #Domestic travel #Girls trip #Solo trip #Nagano sightseeing