Japan Navigator

There are several legends about the origins of the popular Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine in Nishinomiya. One tale goes back to ancient myth and starts with a sad story. The creator gods from Japanese mythology, Izanagi and his sister/spouse Izanami have received a jewelled spear from the other deities to begin their grand work of creating the world (read: the islands of Japan).

[The Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine]

Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, they stir the sea with the mighty spear. One drop of brine falls off the tip of the spear and coagulates into a small island. The two gods then descend to that island to create the world by… making children. They set up the spear as a central pillar and walk around it. When they meet after having circled around the pillar, Izanami, the woman, speaks first and praises the attractiveness of her partner: “What a handsome man!”

Then they lie down and begin to embrace each other. Happily, a couple of birds called wagtails strikes down on a nearby rock, and the way these birds wag their tails gives them a valuable hint of how to proceed.

Alas, when the first labor of the love of the two gods sees the light of the new world, the baby is deformed. It seems to have wax instead of bones and is unable to stand up, even after it is three years old. Izanagi and Izanami call it Hiroko, the “leech-child,” and put it in a boat made of reeds and abandon it to the waves of the sea. There is no mercy for misfits in Japan, neither in the past nor present.

Izanagi and Izanami ascend to Heaven to ask advice of the elder deities. The answer they come up with: Izanami, the woman, was the first to speak after walking around the central pillar. She - the woman - has taken the initiative – and that was apparently a serious offense in ancient Japan.

In the meantime, the small boat performs a great service: it not only saves the poor abandoned ‘leech child,’ but even carries him to fame. Miraculously, he is not swallowed by the sea, but lands safely on the opposite shore, in Nishinomiya. There he is welcomed as Ebisu, the god of good luck and of fishermen, and enshrined in the Nishinomiya Shrine. The ‘leech child’ so makes his come-back with a vengeance: Ebisu is one of the most popular deities in Japan and one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune.

He must have become much healthier after he grew up, because instead of as a jelly-fish, he is always depicted as a fat little man holding an angle and a sea-bream.

That is mythology. The shrine has another legend about its origin that sounds more convincing. A fisherman at work in the bay here once drew up a small statue of a deity in his nets. Frightened, he returned it to the sea, but he caught it again and again in different locations. After the third time, he took it on land and put it up in his house. At night, the deity appeared to him in a dream telling him he was called “Hiroko. ” The god asked to be enshrined in a place suitable for a shrine in the neighborhood - a place he had finally found after having traveled around the whole country. Such legends of statues caught in nets are numerous at the coast of Hyogo (and not only there, it also forms the basis of the story of the origins of Sensoji Temple in Tokyo).

The Nishinomiya Shrine is called the head shrine of the numerous shrines dedicated to Ebisu in Japan. In Nishinomiya, Ebisu is given an additional function: when the city develops into a sake brewing center, thanks to its excellent water called Miyamizu, Ebisu is also crowned as sake deity here.

The shrine stands in the center of Nishinomiya, only a five minute walk from the Hanshin Station, but is protected from noise by a small wooded park. The main hall was rebuilt in 1961 (in concrete) and is in Kasuga style with three linked roofs. The shrine festival, Toka Ebisu, is held on January 10, a time when the shrine is visited by a million people seeking good luck in business.

MAP