Tanzan Shrine

Tanzan Shrine is located on Mount Tōnomine in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, enshrining the spirit of Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669), the founder of the Fujiwara clan and key architect of Japan's Taika Reforms. The site's name — "the mountain where they talked" — derives from the legend that Kamatari and Prince Naka no Ōe (later Emperor Tenji) climbed here in 645 CE to secretly plan the reforms that transformed Japan's political structure. The site originated as the Tendai Buddhist temple Tōnomine-ji, when Kamatari's eldest son, the monk Jōe, reinterred his father's remains here and erected a thirteen-story wooden pagoda over the tomb in 678 CE. The pagoda, rebuilt in 1532, is a National Important Cultural Property and the only surviving wooden thirteen-story pagoda in the world. The complex was converted from a Buddhist temple to a Shinto shrine in 1869 under the Meiji government's shinbutsu-bunri (separation of Buddhism and Shinto) policy. Celebrated for its spectacular cherry blossoms and autumn foliage, the shrine is listed as a Beppyō Jinja. The Kemari Matsuri — a traditional court kickball game in Heian-period costume — is held on April 29 and the second Sunday of November, transporting visitors to the elegance of the ancient capital.

Tanzan Shrine is located in Sakurai-shi, Nara. The full address is: 319 Tonomine, Sakurai-shi, Nara.

The enshrined deities are: Fujiwara no Kamatari.