Watatsumi Shrine, Shinto shrine in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

Watatsumi-jinja is a Shinto shrine in Kobe's Tarumi ward, founded to honour the three Watatsumi sea deities. Its worship hall has a wide, curved green copper roof with a gold ornament and carved crest above the entrance, a twisted straw rope with white paper streamers across the facade, and dark wooden lattice walls flanked by two stone lanterns.

According to shrine tradition, Empress Jingu founded it after the three Watatsumi deities calmed a storm during her return from the Korean campaign. The earliest written record is an 806 entry in the Shinsho Kyakuchoku Fusho granting ten households to the Akashi Tarumi deity. In 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi donated mountain forest for prayers, and Edo-period Akashi lords worshipped here annually.

The shrine is dedicated to the sea and its deities, which you can see reflected in the maritime symbols and offerings left by visitors. Fishermen and sailors traditionally come here to seek blessings for safe voyages.

Watatsumi Shrine stands in Miyamoto-chō, Tarumi-ku, Kobe, a short walk from Tarumi Station on the JR Kobe Line. The grounds lie near the coast, where the great torii once faced a sandy beach before land reclamation after 1960 turned the waterfront into roads and a fishing port. The shrine is a stop on the Kannon pilgrimage route, numbered 73 between Suma-dera and Hiromine Shrine.

The shrine enshrines three sea deities, not one: Uwatsuwatatsumi-no-kami for voyages, Nakatsuwatatsumi-no-kami for fish and fishing, and Sokotsuwatatsumi-no-kami for seaweed and salt. The reading "Watatsumi" was adopted in 1871 on the basis of Motoori Norinaga's theory; locals also call it Kaijinja.