280px, Higashi-Honden (ICP) is a Shinto shrine located in the town of Ryūō,

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 north ...

, Japan. The shrine has many structures from the Muromachi period or older which are designated either National Treasures (NT) or Important Cultural Properties (ICP). Although the shrine holds annual

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

, the shrine's main festival is held only once every 33 years.

History

The foundation of the shrine is uncertain. Per the shrine's own legend, it was founded during the time of the semi-legendary

Emperor Suinin , also known as was the 11th legendary Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Less is known about ''Suinin'' than his father, and likewise he is also considered to be a "legendary emperor". Both the ''Kojiki'', and ...

(who reigned 29 BC to 70 AD per the traditional calendar). The Higashi-Honden is built on the grounds of the Higashi Namura Kofun cluster, a group of Kofun period

burial mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

dating from around the 6th century AD. The shrine first appears in documentary records in the ''

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 th ...

'' listing of Shinto shrines in

Ōmi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is . Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countr ...

, compiled in 927 AD. In 969 AD, it was recorded that 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 ...

'' of Mount Kinpu from

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, th ...

, Kunisatsuchi-no-mikoto was enshrined in a new main shrine building at the Namura Jinja. This new building was designated the "Nishi-Honden", whereas the original main building was renamed the Higashi-Honden. As this shrine was designated for the supply of pine sprigs for use in making ''

kadomatsu are traditional Japanese decorations made for the New Year's. They are a type of '' yorishiro'', or objects intended to welcome ancestral spirits or ''kami'' of the harvest. ''Kadomatsu'' are usually placed in pairs in front of homes and buil ...

'' as part of the new year's rituals at the Imperial Palace from 1017 AD, the shrine was given the name of Namura Jinja by

Emperor Go-Ichijō was the 68th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 後一条天皇 (68)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Ichijō's reign spanned the years from 1016 through 1036. This 11th century sovereign was nam ...

. In 1536,

Emperor Go-Nara was the 105th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from June 9, 1526 until his death in 1557, during the Sengoku period. His personal name was Tomohito (知仁). Genealogy He was the second son of Emper ...

awarded the shrine an official rank of Senior First Court Rank. During the Tenshō era (1573-1593), Oda Nobunaga presented the shrine with a saddle and a sword. In 1881, following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

and the establishment of 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 (''kampei ...

under State Shinto, the shrine was officially designated a “county shrine”. It was promoted to the rank of “prefectural shrine” in 1920. Namura Jinja is a 15-minute drive from

Ōmi-Hachiman Station is an interchange passenger railway station located in the city of Ōmihachiman, Shiga, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and the private railway operator Ohmi Railway. Lines Ōmi-Hachiman Station is served by the Biw ...

on then

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, an ...

Biwako Line The is the nickname used by the operator of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) to refer to the portion of the Tōkaidō Main Line (between Maibara Station and Kyoto Station) and the Hokuriku Main Line (between Maibara Station and Nagaham ...

Cultural Properties

; : Kamakura period (1308), three ''

ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

'' wide, ''

nagare-zukuri The or is a traditional Shinto shrine architectural style characterized by a very asymmetrical gabled roof () projecting outwards on one of the non-gabled sides, above the main entrance, to form a portico (see photo).

''-style with a one ''

'' step canopy and

hinoki cypress ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and orna ...

bark shingles. Designated a National Treasure in 1955. Designation includes a ridge tag with information on the building's construction and one miniature shrine ; : mid-Muromachi period, Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1904. ; : mid-Muromachi period, Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1971. ; : Muromachi period (1536), Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1971. ; : Muromachi period (1522), Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1904. ; : mid-Muromachi period, Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1924.

References

External links

Official websiteShiga - Biwako Visitor's Guide
{{Authority control Shinto shrines in Shiga Prefecture Ōmi Province Ryuo, Shiga National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan

History

Cultural Properties

See also

References

External links