Qualla: Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan

Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan: Introduction

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BradBeattie at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The meeting that changed the course of Japanese history began with a kicked ball. Sometime around 644, during a game of kemari at the foot of these mountains, a young prince named Naka no Oe lost his shoe. The man who picked it up was Fujiwara no Kamatari, a courtier who would become his closest political ally. Together, they plotted the Taika Reform that overthrew the powerful Soga clan and centralized imperial power. When Kamatari died in 669, his eldest son carried his father's remains to a peak called Tonomine on the southern side of Mount Goharetsu and built a thirteen-story pagoda over the grave. That pagoda still rises through the maple canopy of Tanzan Shrine -- the only thirteen-story wooden pagoda in the world -- a monument to an alliance sealed over a game of kickball in ancient Nara.

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Image: BradBeattie at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan: A Grave Atop the Mountain

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. The shrine traces its origin to the Asuka period, when Kamatari's eldest son, the monk Jo'e, established a Tendai temple called Tonomine-ji on the mountaintop. Jo'e moved his father's remains here and erected the original thirteen-story pagoda as a funerary monument. The location...

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Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan: The Only Pagoda of Its Kind

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bakkai at Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0. The present thirteen-story wooden pagoda was built in 1532, a reconstruction of Jo'e's original Asuka-period structure. It is designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan, and it stands alone in the world -- no other thirteen-story wooden pagoda exists anywhere. The pagoda ...

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Image: Bakkai at Japanese Wikipedia | CC BY 3.0

Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan: Two Faiths, One Ground

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ajax, CC BY-SA 4.0. For centuries, Tanzan Shrine embodied shinbutsu-shugo, the Japanese system of religious syncretism that blended Buddhism and Shinto worship on the same ground. The Tanzan Shrine and its parent temple, Tonomine-ji, coexisted on the site, with two subtemples -- Myoraku-ji and anoth...

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Image: Ajax | CC BY-SA 4.0

Tanzan Shrine: Where a Ball Game Changed Japan: Kicking the Deerskin Ball

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BradBeattie at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Every year on April 29 and the second Sunday in November, Tanzan Shrine hosts the Kemari Matsuri -- a kickball festival that reenacts the ancient game that brought Kamatari and Prince Naka no Oe together. Participants dress in the flowing robes and tall hats of the Asuka-period c...

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Image: BradBeattie at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0