is a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

located in the town of Tarui in Fuwa District,

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 ...

. It is the ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

'' of former

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on May 25. The shrine precincts contain 18 structures from the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, which are designated national Important Cultural Properties. The main building of the shrine is rebuilt every 51 years.

Enshrined ''kami''

The ''

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 at Nangū Taisha is: * , the ''kami'' of mining and the metals industry. Beppyo shrines

History

Nangū Taisha is located in the southwestern corner of Gifu Prefecture, at the foot of Mount Nangū. The name "Nangū" derives from its location to the south of the ancient

Mino Provincial Capital The is an archaeological site consisting of the ruins of the Nara period to early Heian period Kokufu, Provincial Capital of Mino Province, located in the Fuchū neighborhood of the town of Tarui, Gifu in the Chūbu region of Japan. The site was d ...

. Nangū Taisha claims to have been first built during the reign of the legendary

Emperor Sujin , also known as in the ''Kojiki'', and or in the '' Nihon Shoki'' was the tenth Emperor of Japan. While Sujin is the first emperor whose existence historians widely accept, he is still referred to as a "legendary emperor" due to a lack of info ...

(97 BC – 30 BC), although there are no historical records prior to its mention in the 836 ''

Shoku Nihon Kōki is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 869, it is the fourth volume in the Six National Histories. It covers the years 833–850. Background Following the earlier national history ''Nihon Kōki'' (840), in 855 Emperor ...

'' and in the 859 ''

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 858–887. Background Following the earlier nation ...

''. The mid-

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 Japanese. ...

Engishiki The is a Japanese book about laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History In 905, Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ...

'' confirmed its status as a . The shrine was destroyed by a fire in 1501, which destroyed all its records. It was rebuilt by

Toki Masafusa was a Japanese samurai warrior of the Sengoku period. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Toki," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 61 retrieved 2013-5-9. Masafusa was the son ...

, the ''

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

'' of Mino Province in 1511. During the nearby

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 1600, the shrine was again completely burnt to the ground and was not rebuilt until 1642, when

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

sponsored the construction efforts.Nangū Taisha
. Zenkoku Kaiun Jinja Bukkaku Guide. Accessed May 9, 2009. The shrine retains a document which details the cost of the reconstruction. In 1867, as a result of ''

shinbutsu bunri The Japanese term indicates the separation of Shinto from Buddhism, introduced after the Meiji Restoration which separated Shinto ''kami'' from buddhas, and also Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, which were originally amalgamated. It is a ...

'', the

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 represen ...

located on the shrine grounds was moved to a different location and named Shinzen-in (真禅院). In 1871, the shrine was designated as a under 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 ...

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...

. It was promoted to a in 1925, and its name was changed from "Jinja" to "Taisha" to reflect its more important status. The shrine is located approximately one kilometer southwest of Tarui Station on the

JR Tokai is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical r ...

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

Gallery

File:Nang%C5%AB_Taisha_shrine_,_%E5%8D%97%E5%AE%AE%E5%A4%A7%E7%A4%BE_-_panoramio_(27).jpg, Haiden（ICP） File:南宮大社舞殿.JPG, Kobu-den（ICP） File:南宮大社楼門.JPG, Rōmon（ICP） File:南宮大社石造鳥居.JPG, Stone Torii（ICP） File:NanguuTaisya1.jpg, Entry File:南宮大社大鳥居.JPG, Great Torii File:Nangū Taisha shrine , 南宮大社 - panoramio (12).jpg, Ring Bridge（ICP）樹下神社と隼人神社 (南宮大社境内社).JPG, Sub-shrine Juge Shrine & Sub-shrine Takayama Shrine (ICPs) 高山神社 (南宮大社境内社).JPG, Sub-shrine Takayama Shrine (ICP)

Cultural Properties

Important Cultural Properties

* ''

Honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

'' (Main shrine), built in 1642. * ''Heiden'', built in 1642. * ''Haiden'', built in 1642. * Cloister, built in 1642. * ''Chokushi-den'', built in 1642. * ''Kobu-den'', built in 1642. *, built in 1642. *, built in 1642. *, built in 1642. * Sub-shrine Juge Jinja Honden * Sub-shrine Takayama Jinja Honden *Sub-shrine Hayato Jinja Honden * Sub-shrine Nandai Jinja Honden * Sub-shrine Shichi-ōji Jinja Honden * Stone Torii, built in 1642 and located in

Tarui-juku 260px, modern Tarui-juku was the fifty-seventh of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It is located in former Mino Province in what is now part of the town of Tarui, Fuwa District, Gifu Pre ...

, built in 1642. *, built in 1642. *, built in 1642. *

Tachi A is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword (''nihonto'') worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. ''Tachi'' and ''katana'' generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on t ...

, signed Yasumitsu, donated by Toki Yoriyoshi in 1398 * Tachi,

, signed by Munechika Sanjo * Halberd (2 pcs),

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

* Historical documents of Nangū Taisha (623 volumes)

Notes

External links

Official home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nangu Taisha Shinto shrines in Gifu Prefecture Tarui, Gifu Mino Province Important Cultural Properties of Japan Ichinomiya