Toyouke Omikami is the kami of grain, food and industry enshrined at the Outer Shrine, the Geku, one of the two great sanctuaries that together make up Ise Grand Shrine. Tradition records that she was summoned from Tanba province at Amaterasu's own request, so that the sun goddess enshrined at the neighboring Inner Shrine would have a kami to prepare her sacred meals, and priests at the Outer Shrine have offered food to the kami twice daily in an unbroken rite for centuries. Although her shrine ranks second to Amaterasu's at Ise in formal precedence, Toyouke's association with the harvest and with sustenance generally has made her one of the most consistently venerated kami in the Shinto pantheon, worshipped wherever agriculture and the provision of food are at stake.
History & Origin
Tradition holds that Amaterasu, enshrined at Ise's Inner Shrine, appeared to a Yamato emperor and asked that Toyouke be brought from Tanba province to prepare her meals, since she had no kami of food nearby; the Outer Shrine was established at Ise to house her in response.
Facts
Cult
Principal Cult CentreThe Outer Shrine (Geku) of Ise Grand Shrine, Mie Prefecture, where priests have offered her food twice daily since the shrine's founding. 2 Attributes and IconographyLike Amaterasu at the Inner Shrine, Toyouke Omikami is given no anthropomorphic image at the Ise Outer Shrine built for her. Shinto practice generally represents a kami through a shintai, a sacred object kept out of sight in the shrine's inner sanctuary, rather than through a statue or painting, and no image of her is displayed or described in the shrine's own tradition. 1 Function
Domain / FunctionAgriculture and harvest 1 Origins
Origin of the NameToyouke Omikami's name is built from toyo, abundant or bountiful, and uke, food or provisions, naming her directly as the goddess of abundant food. She was brought from Tanba to Ise specifically to provide Amaterasu's daily meals, and the Outer Shrine built for her at Ise takes its name and function from that same role. 1 Attributions
Mythic AssociationTradition records that Toyouke was summoned from Tanba province at Amaterasu's own request, so that the sun goddess enshrined at the neighboring Inner Shrine at Ise would have a kami to prepare her sacred meals. 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 Attestation
Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 2 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 3 Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)Kokugakuin University
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Shinto (Shinto Jiten)
Kokugakuin University, Kokugakuin University, 2006Entry on ToyoukeView the Source 2. Ise Jingu, Geku (Toyouke Daijingu) (Ise City Tourism Association)
Ise City Tourism Association, Ise City Tourism Association, 2026View the Source 3. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
Shinto: The Kami Way
Sokyo Ono with William P. Woodard, Tuttle, 1962
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