is a Shinto shrine located in

Gifu is a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku ...

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Alternative '' kanji'' for the shrine are 本庄神社 (''Honjō Jinja'').Shrines near Honjō Shrine
. Honjō Shrine. Accessed June 9, 2008. Honjō Shrine was built as a larger shrine, but it was split into three separate shrines, of which the current Honjō Shrine is one. The other two are Yakumo Shrine (八雲神社 ''Yakumo Jinja'') and Rokujō Shrine (六条神社 ''Rokujō Jinja''), both of which are located nearby.

History

The shrine was originally located to the northeast. In 1599, though, Oda Nobukatsu moved the shrine and divided it into the three mentioned above. His reasoning was that he feared a

Battle of Gifu Castle The was a battle in August 1600 that led to the destruction of Gifu Castle in Gifu, Mino Province (modern-day Gifu Prefecture), Japan. The battle served as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara the following month. It pitted Oda Hidenobu of the ...

between Tokugawa Ieyasu and

Ishida Mitsunari Ishida Mitsunari (, 1559 – November 6, 1600) was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the A ...

. Nobukatsu's fears were confirmed the following year when the Battle of Castle took place as a precursor one month before the larger and more decisive

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of ...

. In 1931, the village of Honjō was amalgamated into the city of Gifu and the shrine changed its festival date to April 5, to coincide with Inaba Shrine's Gifu Festival.

External links

Honjō Shrine official homepage

References

Buildings and structures in Gifu Shinto shrines in Gifu Prefecture 995 establishments 10th-century establishments in Japan 10th-century Shinto shrines {{Shinto shrine