The 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 city of Ōta

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

, Japan. It enshrines the deified first

Shōgun , 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 ...

of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

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 ...

. In the year 2000, it was one of the eleven sites connected with the Nitta-no-shō which were collectively designated a National Historic Site of Japan.

History

The Serada Tōshō-gū was established by

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 ...

in 1644 on a site adjacent to the Buddhist temple of Chōraku-ji (長楽寺). This temple has a memorial stupa to Nitta Yoshishige and his descendant Serada Yoshiki. The

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

claimed descent from the

Nitta clan The was one of several major families descended from the Seiwa Genji, and numbered among the chief enemies of the Hōjō clan regents, and later the Ashikaga shogunate. The common ancestor of the Nitta, Minamoto no Yoshishige (1135 – 1202 ...

via the Serada cadet branch, and thus the temple was regarded as a clan ''

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant jus ...

'' by the Tokugawa clan. After the deification of Tokugawa Ieyasu as 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 ...

'' Tōshō-daigongen, the priest

Tenkai was a Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods. He achieved the rank of ''Daisōjō'', the highest rank of the priesthood. His Buddhist name was first , which he changed to Tenkai in 1590. Also known as , he ...

encouraged the building a network of shrines subsidiary to the

Nikkō Tōshō-gū is a Tōshō-gū Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Together with Futarasan Shrine and Rinnō-ji, it forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 42 structures of the shrine included in the n ...

at various locations around the country connected with Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Tokugawa clan in general. The shrine prospered during 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 ...

, and was separated from Chōraku-ji after 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 ...

with the ''

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 ...

'' decrees of 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 o ...

. In 1879, under

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 ...

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 ...

, it was ranked as a village shrine.

Cultural properties

* The main shrine building (''

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 ...

''), Worship Hall ('' Heiden'') and

Karamon The is a type of gate seen in Japanese architecture. It is characterized by the usage of ''karahafu'', an undulating bargeboard peculiar to Japan. ''Karamon'' are often used at the entrances of Japanese castles, Buddhist temples and Shinto sh ...

gate were all former structures of the Oku-no-in of the Nikkō Tōshō-gū that were relocated to this site when the buildings erected by

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

were rebuilt by Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1644. The ''Honden'' is a one-bay ''

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 structure with a copper roof. The ''Heiden'' is likewise an early Edo period (1615–1624) structure. It is a 3 × 5 bay ''Irimoya-zukuri'' style building with a copper roof. All three buildings were designated an National Important Cultural Property in 1956. * The shrine also has a ''

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 ...

Japanese sword A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794 – 1185) to the ...

. Forged at the end of the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

to early

Nanboku-chō period The Nanboku-chō period (南北朝時代, ''Nanboku-chō jidai'', "North and South court period", also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period), spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Mur ...

, it was a donation to the Oku-no-in of the Nikkō Tōshō-gū by

Emperor Go-Mizunoo was the 108th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Mizunoo's reign spanned the years from 1611 through 1629, and was the first emperor to reign entirely during the Edo period. This 17th-century sovereign was n ...

, and accompanied the buildings of that shrine to the present location. The sword has a total length of only 72.5 cm, but the metal fittings are silver-polished, and the scabbard is a leather base with gold lacquer and chrysanthemum crest lacquer work. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1921.

References

External links

Shrine website
Shinto shrines in Gunma Prefecture Tōshō-gū 1644 establishments in Japan Ōta, Gunma Religious buildings and structures completed in 1644 Historic Sites of Japan Kōzuke Province {{Shinto-stub

History

Cultural properties

See also

References

External links