S P O T ／ SPOT-267

Nobono Shrine (Yamato Takeru's Nobono Mausoleum)

能褒野神社（ヤマトタケル能褒野陵）のぼのじんじゃ

A shrine in Tamura-cho, Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture, enshrining the ancient hero Yamato Takeru-no-Mikoto, whom the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record as having died here at Nobono on his return from the eastern campaign. The adjacent Nobono Otsuka Tumulus — a keyhole-shaped mound about 90 m long, among the largest in northern Ise Province — was designated by the Home Ministry in 1879 as the "Nobono Tomb," the mausoleum of Yamato Takeru, and is still managed by the Imperial Household Agency. Beside this tomb, Nobono Shrine was founded in the Meiji era to honor the hero's virtue, its buildings completed in 1895. It is a rare site where a tumulus, an imperial tomb, and a modern shrine overlap: the "grave" of a mythical figure officially designated by the modern state, with a shrine standing alongside it. The tomb is worshipped from outside its fence, and a serene space wrapped in deep forest spreads around it.