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 ...
in
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.
See also
*
List of Shinto shrines
For lists of Shinto shrines, see:
*List of Shinto shrines in Japan
**List of Shinto shrines in Kyoto
*List of Shinto shrines outside Japan
**List of Shinto shrines in Taiwan
**List of Shinto shrines in the United States
See also
*List of Jingū ...
*
Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines
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
{{Authority control
Shinto shrines in Miyagi Prefecture
Iwanuma, Miyagi
Inari shrines
Beppyo shrines
Ken-sha