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is a Shinto shrine located in the city of
Ōtsu 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Ōtsu ...
,
Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the northe ...
Japan. This shrine is one of the Twenty-Two Shrines. Known before World War II as or Hie jinja, "Hiyoshi" is now the preferred spelling. It was also known as the . The head shrine in Ōtsu heads the seventh largest shrine network in Japan, with approximately 3800 Hiyoshi, Hie, and Sannō shrines nationwide. Torii of this shrine have a distinctive configuration, known as the "Sannō torii", with a gaggle above the main crossbeam. The 400,000 square meter precincts centered is designated as a National Historic Site, and the east and west main shrine buildings, the and are designated as National Treasures, and many of the structures in the precincts are designated as National Important Cultural Properties.


Enshrined ''kami''

;Main shrine * Nishi Hongū: * Higashi Hongū: ;Subsidiary shrines * Ushio-gū: * Juge Jinja: * Sannomiya-gū: * Usa-gū: * Shirayama-gū:


History

The first mention of the '' kami'' Oyamakui is recorded in Kojiki, written in the 8th century AD, which states that this god resides at
Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...
, which is located immediately to the east of Hiyoshi Taisha. This ''kami'' was relocated from the summit of the mountain to its present location in the seventh year of the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Sujin, or 90 BC per the traditional calendar. In 668 AD, Emperor Tenji decided to relocate the capital to Ōmi Province and built the
Ōtsu Palace 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Ōtsu is ...
. At this time, the ''kami'' of
Ōmiwa Shrine , also known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is noted because it contains no sacred images or objects because it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same reas ...
in
Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, the ...
(who served as protector of the imperial dynasty) was relocated as well, and was installed in the Nishi Hongū, whereas the original sanctuary came to be called the Higashi Hongū. In 788 AD,
Saichō was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school of Buddhism based on the Chinese Tiantai school he was exposed to during his trip to Tang China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryak ...
erected the
Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese ...
Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism repres ...
complex of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei. After the transfer of the capital to
Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...
, Enryaku-ji and by extension, Hiyoshi Taisha came to be guardians of the spiritually vulnerable northeast quadrant from the capital. As Enryaku-ji became ever more powerful, and the Buddhist faith gradually amalgamated with Shinto under the '' Shinbutsu-shūgō'' policy, Hiyoshi Taisha was subsumed into Enryaku-ji. As missionaries from Enryaku-ji built Buddhist temples all across Japan, they also spread the faith in the "Sannō Gongen" and the Hie ''kami''. The shrine became the object of Imperial patronage during the early
Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japane ...
. In 965,
Emperor Murakami was the 62nd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 村上天皇 (62)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Murakami's reign spanned the years from 946 to his death in 967. Biography Before he ascended to ...
ordered that Imperial messengers were sent to report important events to the guardian ''kami'' of Japan,Ponsonby-Fane, ''Shrines,'' p. 118. and Hie Taisha was added to this listing by Emperor Go-Suzaku in 1039. This unique number of Imperial-designated shrines has not been altered since that time. During the late
Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japane ...
, political troubles arose between Enryaku-ji and the secular government in Kyoto. It became the practice of the warrior-monks from the temple to carry a ''
mikoshi A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when ...
'' portable shrine from Hie Taisha into the capital and to riot to enforce their political will. Soon after the '' kanpaku'' Fujiwara no Moromichi dared to oppose the riots by stopping the ''mikoshi'', he died under mysterious circumstances, which the temple was quick to attribute to a curse from the gods for having shown disrespect to the ''mikoshi''. The ''mikoshi'' of Hei Taisha thus became an object of fear and awe, and the temple used the tactic of running riot with the ''mikoshi'' to obtain their will on more than 40 occasions over a 370+ year period into the Sengoku period. The practice was stopped in 1571 when Oda Nobunaga ordered Enryaku-ji to be razed to the ground, and all of its monks to be massacred. This also included Hie Taisha. The shrine was rebuilt under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with the oldest buildings currently at the shrine dating from the period of 1586 to 1597. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a deep faith in the Sannō Gongen, as his childhood name was "Hiyoshi Maru" and his nickname was "monkey", an animal which was considered to be the spiritual messenger of the Hie ''kami''. The Nishi Hongū was reconstructed in 1586 and the Higashi Hongū in 1595.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...
also had faith in the Sannō Gongen and the shrine was supported by the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1868 (the first year after the Meiji restoration), the new
Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji oli ...
decreed the separation of Shinto and Buddhism. Hie Taisha was at the forefront of this effort, and was one of the first to burn or otherwise its Buddhist statuary, ritual implements and scriptures. This was the beginning of the nationwide '' Haibutsu kishaku'' movement. Under State Shinto, the shrive was officially designated one of the , or Imperial shrine of the first rank.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 125.


Gallery

Hiyoshi-taisha usagu01bs4592.jpg, Usa-gū (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha shirayamahime-jinja-haiden01n4592.jpg, Shirayama-gū (ICP) Hiyoshi Taisha shrine 日吉大社11 - panoramio.jpg, Higashi Hongū '' Romon'' (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha juge-jinja-honden01s4592.jpg, Juge Jinja (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha ninomiyabashi01s4592.jpg, Ninomiya Bridge (ICP) Hiyoshi Taisha Momiji 1.jpg, Torii on the ''
Momiji ''Acer palmatum'', commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Japanese: ''irohamomiji'', , or ''momiji'', (栴), is a species of woody plant native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia ...
Matsuri'' evening (Maple Festival)


See also

* Twenty-Two Shrines *
List of National Treasures of Japan (shrines) The number of Shinto shrines in Japan today has been estimated at more than 150,000. Single structure shrines are the most common. Shrine buildings might also include oratories (in front of main sanctuary), purification halls, offering halls called ...
*
List of Historic Sites of Japan (Shiga) This list is of the Historic Sites of Japan located within the Prefecture of Shiga. National Historic Sites As of 1 January 2021, fifty Sites have been designated as being of national significance (including two *Special Historic Sites); Genb ...


References

* Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
. * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 399449
* ____________. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* ''Hieizan Rekishi no Sampomichi'',
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' a ...
, 1995,


External links


山王総本宮 日吉大社
- Hiyoshi Taisha's official website (Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hiyoshi Shrine Kanpei-taisha Shinto shrines in Shiga Prefecture Buildings and structures in Ōtsu National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Historic Sites of Japan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1586 Beppyo shrines