The is a Shintō shrine in the city of

Iwanuma 270px, Iwanuma City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 43,946 in 18,062 households, and a population density of 730 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Iwanuma is at the ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

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 considered one of the three main shrines dedicated to the '' kami'' Inari, and claims to be the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan. It was also referred to as the Inari's traditional festival day is the first horse day (the sixth day) of the second month of the

lunisolar calendar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...

; in recent years, the shrine has celebrated the event on a Sunday in February or early March. This festival is estimated to draw a quarter-million attendees. The shrine is also home to a horsemanship museum.

Enshrined ''kami''

The primary '' kami'' of Takekoma Inari Shrine is , traditionally identified as with Inari, and associated with agriculture, especially rice production. Secondary ''kami'' include , the goddess of food, and , the god of the five cereals. There are also several smaller subsidiary shrines within the shrine grounds.

History

The Takekoma Inari Shrine was established in 842 AD, reputedly by Ono no Takamura, the ''kokushi'' of Ōshū Province, as a branch of the famous

Fushimi Inari Shrine is the head shrine of the ''kami'' Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines ...

south of Kyoto. The shrine is mentioned by the Heian period poet

Nōin , also known was , was a Japanese poet and monk of the late Heian period. Along with Izumi Shikibu, Nōin is one of " Thirty-six Medieval Poetry Immortals" of waka poetry selected by (1107–1165). Nōin authored of the ''Gengenshu'' and ''Nōi ...

during the reign of Emperor Go-Reizei (1045-1068) and during the Sengoku period was awarded an estate by local warlord Date Tanemune. It continued to be supported by the Date clan of Sendai Domain through the end of the Edo period. Following the start of

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 ...

in the Meiji period, the shrine was ranked as a Prefectural Shrine under the Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines.

Notable structures

The ''Honden'' of the shrine was a structure built by the 5th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain,

Date Yoshimura was an mid-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 5th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in northern Japan, and the 21st hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. The longest-serving of any of the ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain, Yoshimura placed the domain b ...

, but burned down in a fire on November 21, 1990. It was rebuilt in 1994. Currently, the oldest structure in the shrine is the ''Zuishinmon'' two-story gate tower. It was built in 1812 and is a registered Important Cultural Property of Iwanuma City.

References

* Smyers, Karen Ann. (1999). ''The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship.'' Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ;
OCLC 39523475
* Plutschow, Herbe. ''Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan''. RoutledgeCurzon (1996) * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 3994492

External links

Official site of the shrine

Notes