NIJUNISHA

The twenty-two shrines. An elite grouping of shrines (sixteen to begin with) in the Kyoto-Ise-Nara area which from the mid-Heianperiod acquired a high and separate status, differentiated from shrines elsewhere in the country. They were grouped into three divisions; the 'upper seven' shrines (Ise,Iwashimizu, bothKamoshrines,Matsuno, Hirano,InariandKasuga), the 'middle seven' shrines (Oharano, Omiwa, Isonokami, Oyamato, Hirose, Tatsuta,Sumiyoshi) and the 'eight lower' shrines (Hie, Umenomiya,Yoshida, Hirota,Gion, Kitano, Niukawakami and Kifune).

See Ichi-no-miya.