Agata-no-Inukai-no-Michiyo (date of birth unknown - 733) was a court lady who served three emperors — Genmei, Genshō, and Shōmu — and was the wife of Fujiwara no Fuhito, mother of Tachibana no Moroe, and grandmother of Tachibana Kachiko (Empress Danrin). Around 730 (Tenpyō 2), she enshrined the deities of sake brewing in Yamato Province (near present-day Kizugawa City, Nara Prefecture), founding what would become Umemiya Taisha. The shrine was positioned as the ujigami (clan deity shrine) of the Tachibana clan, where she prayed for the prosperity of descendants and the welfare of the lineage.

Tachibana Kachiko (786-850) is known as Empress Danrin, consort of Emperor Saga and mother of Emperor Ninmyō, born of the Tachibana clan. As empress, she relocated Umemiya Taisha from Yamato Province to its present site at Umezu in Yamashiro Province, linking it to the imperial court's sake-brewing rituals. The shrine became widely venerated for its efficacy in granting children, based on the tradition that the empress herself prayed here and was granted the future Emperor Ninmyō. The custom of straddling the 'Mataide-ishi' stone in the precincts derives from her legend.