Recent Additions

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May 1:      11 Inari Shrines in Ginza    銀座にある11の稲荷神社

My database contains sixteen shrines located in Ginza in Chuo-ku in the heart of Tokyo. Of these sixteen, eleven are Inari Jinja meaning that there is one Inari Jinja for every 270 of Ginza’s resident population. I suspect that this  is the lowest such number in Japan, and by extension in the world. Of course the number for daytime population—people working in shops and offices, sightseers, shoppers etc—is much higher. I haven’t been able to find a figure for Ginza’s daytime population but for Chuo-ku as a whole the daytime/resident population ratio is 3.84: applying this to Ginza the number of Inari Jinja per head of daytime population rises from 270 to 1,038, still a very low number. Five of the eleven are described on this page, I will be addimg more in due course.

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April 6:      Kitano Tenman Shrine   北野天満神社

This shrine was established in June 1180 by Taira Kiyomori when he moved the capital from Kyoto to what is now Kobe and established the Fukuhara-kyo, the seat of government. Kyoto’s Kitano Tenman-Gu was seen as protecting the Imperial Court against the inauspicious emanations from the northeast direction (鬼門) and its Kami, Sugawara Michizane, was enshrined through the kanjō process. 

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March 29:  Watatsumi Shrine       海神者

This shrine’s formal name is Watatsumi Jinja but it is colloquially much better known as Umi Jinja. The shrine legend tells us that it was founded when Empress Jingū was returning from the Three Han (三韓, Korea) campaign. The first historical mention was in 806. It is one of the Three Major Shrines of Harima Province, and one  of the nine shrines listed in the Akashi District of Harima Province in the Eng-Shiki.

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March 19: Ono Terusaki Shrine　　　小野照崎神社

This shrine’s main Kami is a jinbutsu-kami, Ono Takamura, a calligrapher and poet who lived during the early Heian Period. It is said that the origin of the shrine was in 852 when local residents began to worship Ono.
At the rear of the shrine there is a Fujizuka. Built in 1782 and 6m. high it is open to the public on June 30 and July 1 to coincide with the official opening of Mt. Fuji. In 1979 it was designated an Important tangible folk cultural property.

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March 5:     Oyama Afuri Shrine        大山阿夫利神社

Said to have been founded in 97 BC. Located on Mt Oyama, 46.5km from Mt Fuji as the crow flies, and a centre of pilgrimage since Edo times. The shrine’s home page tells us that about 200,000 pilgrims, mostly from Edo, visited the Oyama site each year in the mid-eighteenth century; this at a time when Edo’s population was about one million. A much earlier pilgrim to the shrine, and certaiinly one of the most famous, was Minamoto Yoritomo, who is said to have started the custom of Osame-dachi (donating swords to the shrine. 

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February 20:  Minatogawa Jinja        湊川神社

This shrine is all about samurai loyalty as exemplified by its Kami, Kusunoki Masashige. He was a loyal servant of Emperor Go-Daigo in the latter’s successful attempt to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate. This happened in 1333 and a short period of imperial rule followed. In 1336, however, Ashikaga Takauji defeated the imperial forces, ushering in the Ashikaga Shogunate. In the same year Kusonogi sacrificed his life fighting in the Battle of Minatogawa on the instructions of Emperor Go Daigo. This battle was widely seen as a disastrous decision on the part of the emperor.

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February 6:  Ha Jinja       歯神社

Like Otabi-Sha, Ha Shrine is an auxiliary shrine of Tsunashiki Ten Shrine. It is a very small shrine, only about 7㎡ in area, and it may be true to say that its story is more interesting than the shrine itself. The “Ha” in its name means “tooth” so it may not be surprising that the shrine celebrates toothbrushes on its annual festival on June 4, which day has been designated Cavity Prevention Day by the Japan Dental Association. It has become something of a mecca for anyone connected with dental issues.  

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January 31:  Tsunashiki Ten Shrine／Otabi-Sha      綱敷天 神社／御旅所

Otabi-Sha is an auxiliary shrine of Tsunashiki Ten Jinja. It functions as  a place of repose and tranquillity for the spirit of the Kami of Tsunashiki Ten Jinja when they are being paraded around town on a palanquin during festivals.

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January 23: Tsunashiki Ten Shrine  綱敷天神社

Tsunashiki Ten Shrine dates to 822, when the 52nd emperor, Saga, spent a night at Kamiyama, where the shrine is located. Saga died the following year, and in 843 as an act of mourning his son, Minamoto Toru, built seven halls in the neighbouring Taiyū Temple, and a shrine, the Kamino Daijingu, where his father was enshrined. This in due course became the current Tsunashiki Ten Shrine, which is the only shrine in the country where Emperor Saga is a principal deity. The other principal deity of this shrine is Sugawara Michizane.

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January 15: Seitaga Shrine    勢伊多賀神社

Another shrine in Matsumoto-shi about which little information is available. Its origin is unclear, but the unearthing nearby of a copper sheet engraved with the names of its two Kami, Izanagi and Kanayama-hiko, suggests that it is quite old. 

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January 4: Sarutahiko Shrine  猿田彦神社

This is one of four shrines I visited in Matsumoto-shi, the second largest city in Nagano-ken. It is another shrine about which little information is available. It is merely listed on the Nagano Jinjacho home page, no information is given.

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January 2: Hachiman Shrine　八幡神社

This is one of four shrines I visited in Matsumoto-shi, the second largest city in Nagano-ken. It was founded in 1505 near its current location but its proximity to the River Nagai (奈良井川) resulted in its being washed away when that river flooded in August 1559. Attempts to rebuild the shrine were nullified by repeated flooding over the next 90 years, and in 1691 it was rebuilt in its current location.

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December 18:  Shakujii Shrine　 石神井神社

The age and origins of this shrine are unclear, but in Edo Period topographies such as the Shishin Chimeiroku and the Shinpen-Musashi-Fudo-Kiko we are told that there was one or more shrines (the original text is vague) called Shakujin Jinja (石神の神社, lit. Shrine of the Stone God), and that the shintai of the shrine was a sword-shaped stone (石剣, sekken) dating from before the Age of the Gods.

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November 30:  Shakujii Inari Shrine    石神井稲荷神社

This Inari Shrine is located in a corner of the Kamishakujii Heights housing complex. The site had been the sports ground of the then Tokyo University of Commerce, the current Hitotsubashi University. The university’s campus in Kanda in central Tokyo was badly damaged by fire in 1923 and a temporary school building for preparatory students was constructed on this site. It was used from 1924 until being moved to Kodaira in August 1933.

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November 25: Miharadai Inari Shrine　 三原台稲荷

Dates to the early years of the eighteenth century. The oldest parts of the shrine, dating to the Taisho Period, 1912-1926, are the main torii and the stone lanterns. The main hall and prayer hall were rebuilt in 1959. Inside the latter there is a collection of 36 ema and votive tablets from the closing days of the Tokugawa Shogunate. There are several stone monuments in two smaller, unnamed shrines in the grounds dedicated to, among others, Ontake Okami, Komyo Reijin, and  Hitoyama Reijin.
 

November 13: Mitsumine Shrine　三峯神社

As far as I am aware there is almost nothing in the publc domain about this shrine. What makes it interesting is the gatherings that were held here to pray to Jukuya Sama (十九夜様, lit. Goddess of the 19th night). She is a manifestation of Kannon Bosatsu. The 19th was decided on under the lunar calendar and the gatherings were often held every month. It seems that they lasted until the moon rose. The people attending the gathering were mostly local women praying for safe childbirth. 

At the back of the shrine is a collecton of seven carvings of the associated Buddhist deities and the characters Jukuya can be deciphered on some of them.

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