is the largest

Hachiman shrine A is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the ''kami'' Hachiman. It is the second most numerous type of Shinto shrine after those dedicated to Inari Ōkami (see Inari shrine). There are about 44,000 Hachiman shrines. Originally the name 八幡 was ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

History

The shrine was established in Fukagawa in with reclamation of a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

Hachiman In Japanese religion, ''Yahata'' (八幡神, ancient Shinto pronunciation) formerly in Shinto and later commonly known as Hachiman (八幡神, Japanese Buddhist pronunciation) is the syncretic divinity of archery and war, incorporating elements f ...

, whom the shrine reveres, was also a local

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 the

Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during the ...

, thus the shrine received cordial protection by 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 ...

. On the other hand, the shrine was revered from the people of

shitamachi and are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version While citizens once considered it as ...

, and familiar as "Hachiman of Fukagawa". During the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, the shrine lost the cordial protection it had enjoyed 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 ...

. It was, however, chosen as by the

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 ...

, despite being considered of inferior status relative to Hikawa Shrine and other major shrines which the government had provided. On , the shrine was burned down during the

bombing of Tokyo The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing ...

. On 18 March 1945,

Emperor Shōwa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, who was inspecting the burned area, visited here and received the explanation about the damage in precincts. Upon returning to his palace, the emperor described his impression to Hisanori Fujita, his Grand Chamberlains, comparing the effects to the

Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

of 1923 which he had seen when Crown Prince: After the war, two stone monuments to commemorate the visit were built in precincts. In June 2017, the shrine decided to leave the control of

Association of Shinto Shrines The is a religious administrative organisation that oversees about 80,000 Shinto shrines in Japan. These shrines take the Ise Grand Shrine as the foundation of their belief. It is the largest Shrine Shinto organization in existence. Description ...

. On 7 December 2017, the chief priestess of the shrine, Nagako Tomioka, was stabbed to death, reportedly by her brother Shigenaga Tomioka. The attacker's wife also took part in the attack according to the police, injuring the priestess' driver. Her brother later stabbed his wife to death before committing suicide. A bloodied sword and knives were found at the scene.

Sumo

Yokozuna Stone Tomioka Hachiman 2010 September

Tomioka Hachiman Shrine is also known as the birthplace of , founded in 1684 and origin of the current

professional sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

. Two '' basho'' (Spring and Autumn) were held at the shrine every year under the permission of the shogunate, and ''

banzuke A , officially called is a document listing the rankings of professional sumo wrestlers published before each official tournament (''honbasho''). The term can also refer to the rankings themselves. The document is normally released about two w ...

'' and other major systems were created in this period. After almost eighty years, ''basho'' had been held also in other places in Edo (Tokyo), then Ekōin came to hold all ''basho'' since 1833. In

(1868–1912), sumo strengthened the relation with

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

to survive because of losses of supports from the shogunate and ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

''s, who lost power by 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 ...

, thus the Shinto shrine came to be valued further by sumo. In 1900 (Meiji 33), the stone monument to commend successive ''

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

'', the , was built by

Jinmaku Kyūgorō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Itō, Izumo Province. He was the sport's 12th ''yokozuna''. Career Jinmaku was born in Ou District, Izumo Province (modern Yatsuka District, Shimane). His real name was . In 1847, he became a pupi ...

, the 12th ''yokozuna''. Now, the stone inscribed with the ''

shikona A is a sumo wrestler's ring name. The tradition of ring names in sumo dates back to the Edo period, where they were used as a means to attract customers and hide the identities of the ''rikishi''. Like standard Japanese names, a ''shikona'' co ...

'' of all ''yokozuna'' until

Terunofuji Haruo , lead=yes), is a Mongolian-born naturalised-Japanese professional sumo wrestler. Wrestling for the Isegahama stable, he entered professional sumo in January 2011 and took the second division ''jūryō'' championship in his debut as a ''sekitori ...

, the 73rd ''yokozuna'', and "unrivaled ''rikishi''" Raiden Tameemon. The shrine has many other stone monuments related to sumo. Thus, when a ''

rikishi A , or, more colloquially, , is a professional sumo wrestler. follow and live by the centuries-old rules of the sumo profession, with most coming from Japan, the only country where sumo is practiced professionally. Participation in official t ...

'' reaches the rank of ''yokozuna'', a dedication in the form of ''

dohyō-iri The following words are terms used in sumo wrestling in Japan. A B C D E F G H ...

'' is done at the shrine.

References

External links

Tomioka Hachiman Shrine official website
- {{Authority control Shinto shrines in Tokyo Sumo venues in Japan Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II Buildings and structures in Koto, Tokyo Hachiman shrines Religious buildings and structures completed in 1627