普通の外にいくつかの著名な品質を持っている、と畏敬の念を起こさせるあるいかなるビーイングは、カミと呼ばれています。
白旗神社
Shirahata Jinja
Nearest station: Higashi-Totsuka Lines: JR Yokosuka (JO11), Shonan-Shinjuku (JS11)
Kanagawa-ken, Yokohama-shi, Totsuka-ku Shinanocho 518-7 神奈川県横浜市戸塚区品濃町518-7 June 30
Enshrined Kami:
Main
Minamoto Yoshitsune 源義経命
From Merged Shrines
Amaterasu Ōkami 天照皇大神
Toyōuke-hime-mikoto 豊宇気毘売尊
In-ground Shrines:
Dairoku-sha 大六社
Zao-sha 蔵王社
Annual Festival: Septemer 28
This Shirahata (“white flag”) Jinja was founded in 1256 and rebuilt in 1575 and again in 1840. Most Japanese will know that during the Genpei War (1180-1185) fought between the Minamoto and Taira Clans the former’s flag was white, the latter’s red. The number of shrines calling themselves Shirahata registered with the Association of Shinto Shrines is at least eighty: of these, Minamoto Clan members are enshrined at eight.
After 1591 the shrine was very much under the influence of the Shinmi Clan, close and mutually trusting retainers of the Tokugawas, and this ensured its prosperity until the Meiji Period. One of the most famous of the clan was Shinmi Masaoka. He was one of the people sent to the US to ratify the Ansei Treaties in 1858 and the grave of one of his ancestors was in the shrine.
During the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 the shine collapsed but its parishioners were largely unscathed, moving the then village headman,
Kaneko Kingoro, to rhapsodise that even if the palace pillars are pulled down or the palace itself collapses the parishioners will not be injured. Encouraged by Kaneko’s words the villagers began reconstruction work and this was finished on September 28 the following year. The parishioners’ efforts were again relied on in more modern times, on December 13, 2007 to be precise, when an arsonist burnt down the main hall. Reconstruction was finished in October 2012.
(Click on images to expand them)