Nagoya - Atsuta-jingu Shrine

Atsuta Shrine is the most important Shinto shrine in Japan. In this shrine one of three Imperial insignia, the "grass-mowing sword" (kusanagi-no-tsurugi) was preserved.

In Japanese mythology the sword originally belonged to the storm god Susanoo. When the legendary hero Yamato-takeru set out to conquer the eastern provinces the sword was presented to him by the high priestess of the Ise Shrines, Yamato-hime.

Then, when his enemies tried to kill him by setting the long grass on fire, he saved himself by mowing the grass with his sword. He then hung the sword on a mulberry tree, from which it was stolen by Princess Miyazu-hime. And finally according to the legend, the brilliant flash of the blade set a cedar tree on fire. Hence in popular etymology, the name of the shrine (atsuta = "burning field").

In the northern part of the wooded precincts is the principal shrine, Hongu, surrounded by an enclosing wall. To the east is the Treasury, a modern building which contains a large number of works of art (old and modern pictures, ceramics, jewelry and dramatic masks).