Kurume Suitengū (久留米水天宮（全国総本宮）)

Quick Facts

Type

Shrine or temple

Prefecture

Fukuoka · Kurume

Nearest station

Kurume Station (JR Kagoshima Main Line and Kyūshū Shinkansen)

From the station

About eight minutes on foot toward the river

English signage

none

Opening hours and admission

See the official site · information checked on 2026-11-05

Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.

What is there

The shrine stands on the Chikugo embankment eight minutes’ walk from Kurume station, facing the river it has guarded since the lords of the castle moved it here in 1650. It is the head shrine of every Suitengū in the country, including the famous one in Tokyo, which began as a branch in the Kurume lords’ Edo mansion. Its tradition starts in 1190 with a court lady who survived the sea battle of Dan-no-ura and built a shrine to the drowned child emperor and the women of the Taira; the shrine is now prayed to for safe childbirth and safety on the water. Camellias, its crest, surround the hall and flower in late winter, and the great fireworks over the river in August began as the shrine’s own display. Before 1670 it was called the shrine of the Nun, and its gods were the water gods of the river, among them the river lord whose name the kappa carry.

Why here

The tale told along the river says that the kappa of Kumamoto, driven from the Kuma river by the monkeys the castle lord set on them, crossed into this valley under their chief Kyūsenbō, asked leave of the lord of Kurume, and settled on the Chikugo as the messengers of Suitengū. That is why the river is the kappa river of Kyushu, why the station upstream at Tanushimaru is built as one, and why the shrine of the water gods is the right place to start.

Yokai you will meet

Kappa 河童 — The kappa clans of the tale took service here, as the messengers of the water god of the Chikugo.

Getting there

Kurume Station (JR Kagoshima Main Line and Kyūshū Shinkansen). About eight minutes on foot toward the river.

Sources and further reading

Reliable secondary Suitengū, head shrine of all Suitengū Kurume Suitengū Official site: the deities, the origin from the Taira court lady, the annual festivals and the river fireworks.

Database Suitengū, Kurume (水天宮 (久留米市)) Wikipedia (Japanese) The 1190 tradition, the 1650 move to the riverbank, the Edo branch that became the Tokyo Suitengū, and the older river-god cult of the shrine.

Reliable secondary Suitengū Fukuoka Prefecture Tourism Federation (Crossroad Fukuoka) Visitor page: access from Kurume station, the camellias, and the shrine's link to the kappa legends of the Chikugo.

Museum Yatsushiro, where the kappa came ashore Kumamoto Prefectural Museum Network Center The 1746 account of Kyūsenbō and the nine thousand kappa, the monkeys of Katō Kiyomasa, the move to the Chikugo as messengers of Suitengū, the stones at Tokubuchi and the June river festival.

Other places with these yokai

Kappa-buchi and Jōkenji カッパ淵と常堅寺 Site Tōno, Iwate — Kappa

Denshōen 伝承園 Museum Tōno, Iwate — Kappa

Tōno Municipal Museum 遠野市立博物館 Museum Tōno, Iwate — Kappa

Tōno Folktale Museum とおの物語の館 Museum Tōno, Iwate — Kappa

Fukusaki: Yanagita Kunio's Birthplace and the Yokai Benches 福崎町（柳田國男・松岡家記念館と妖怪ベンチ） Site Fukusaki, Hyōgo — Kappa

Mizuki Shigeru Road 水木しげるロード Street Sakaiminato, Tottori — Kappa

Yokai Art Museum, Shōdoshima 妖怪美術館（小豆島） Museum Tonoshō, Shōdoshima, Kagawa — Kappa

Tanushimaru Station, the Kappa Station 田主丸駅（河童駅舎） Site Kurume (Tanushimaru), Fukuoka — Kappa

The Kappa Landing Stone at Yatsushiro 河童渡来之碑（徳渕の津） Site Yatsushiro, Kumamoto — Kappa