branch-temples

Updated: May 25, 2025

"Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Ise in the first, place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods, the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, the fifteen hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and small temples in all provinces, all islands, and all places of the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundred myriads of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of branch-palaces and branch-temples, and Sohodo-no-Kami* whom I have invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign to correct the unwilling faults which, heard and seen by them, I have committed; and that, blessing and favouring me according to the powers which they severally wield, they will cause me to follow the divine example, and to perform good works in the Way."

Lafcadio Hearn - Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation