The Eight Shrines of Ryūkyū (琉球八社: Ryukyu Hassha) are eight shrines in the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

that were

shrines A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daemon, or similar figure of respect, wh ...

by the Ryukyuan government under the "Ryukyu Hasha (government-owned) shrine system. Asato Hachiman Shrine is dedicated to H achiman Daibosatsu, Emperor Ojin, Princess Tamayori, and Empress Jingu. while the other shrines enshrine Kumano Gongen.

History

It is not clear when or why they began to be called eight shrines. All of these shrines had a Shingon Buddhist temple attached to them. The oldest one is thought to be the Okimiya, which is said to have been built during the time of Minamoto no Tematomo, who is believed to have been the father of

Shunten Shunten (, traditionally dated – 1237) was the legendary first king of Chūzan and a ruler of Okinawa Island, Okinawa. The official histories of the Ryukyu Kingdom claim that he was the son of the samurai Minamoto no Tametomo and a local noble ...

. In the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, 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 feu ...

, the shrine was listed as Imperial shrines, 3rd rank, and considered as the ''

Chinjugami is a ''kami'' that is worshipped in order to gain its protections for a specific building or region. In modern times, it is often conflated with ''ujigami'' and ''ubusunagami''. A shrine enshrining a ''chinjugami'' is called a ''chinjusha''. ''C ...

'' of Okinawa, but it was damaged in the World War II. After the war, the main shrine and shrine office were rebuilt in 1953. In 1930, the main shrine building and other buildings were completed as part of the

Heisei Era The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, when his ...

construction. Futenma Shrine was torn down by the U.S. military after WW2 and rebuilt in 1950. The main shrine is located in a limestone cave.

List of 8 Ryukyu Shrines

References

* {{coord missing, Okinawa Prefecture Ryukyu Kingdom Shinto shrines in Okinawa Prefecture