Karafuto Shrine (樺太神社, ''Karafuto jinja'') was a

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine in Toyohara,

Karafuto Prefecture Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949. Karafuto became ter ...

in what is now

Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalínskaya óblast', p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the K ...

, Russia. The shrine was established in 1911, and its main annual festival was held on August 23.

Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

enshrined here included Okunitama no kami (大国魂神),

Ōkuninushi Ōkuninushi ( historical orthography: ''Ohokuninushi''), also known as Ō(a)namuchi (''Oho(a)namuchi'') or Ō(a)namochi (''Oho(a)namochi'') among other variants, is a ''kami'' in Japanese mythology. He is one of the central deities in the cycle ...

(as 大己貴神) and

Sukunabikona Sukunabikona or Sukuna bikona (少彦名神, also known as Sukuna-biko, Sukuna-biko-na, Sukuna hikona) is the Shinto kami of the ''onsen'' (hot springs), agriculture, healing, magic, brewing sake and knowledge. His name means "the small lord of re ...

(少彦名命). It was formerly a national shrine of the first rank (国幣大社, ''kokuhei taisha'') in the

Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines The was an organizational aspect of the establishment of Japanese State Shinto. This system classified Shinto shrines as either official government shrines or "other" shrines. The official shrines were divided into #Imperial shrines (''kampeisha ...

. The Karafuto Shrine was abandoned in 1945 due to the Soviet takeover of the island, and it was demolished on November 17. The modern site of the shrine has a concrete building, with a commemorative plaque to mark

Japanese-Russian relations Japanese Russian or Russian Japanese may refer to: *Japanese-Russian relations (c.f. "a Japanese-Russian treaty") *Japanese language education in Russia (c.f. "Russian Japanese education") **Cyrillization of Japanese *Eurasian (mixed ancestry) peopl ...

. Next to the shrine's site is a Western-style boarding school.

References

Shinto shrines in Karafuto Prefecture Buildings and structures demolished in 1945 Religious buildings and structures completed in 1911 20th-century Shinto shrines {{Shinto-stub

See also

References