, is a

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

located in

Chiyoda, Tokyo , known as Chiyoda City in English,
." ''City of Chiyoda''. Retrieved on December 28, 2008. is a S ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The shrine dates back 1,270 years, but the current structure was rebuilt several times due to fire and earthquakes. It is situated in one of the most expensive estate areas of Tokyo. Kanda Shrine was an important shrine to both the

warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

class and citizens of Japan, especially during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, when ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

paid his respects at Kanda Shrine. Due in part to the proximity of the Kanda Shrine to

Akihabara is a neighborhood in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan, generally considered to be the area surrounding Akihabara Station (nicknamed ''Akihabara Electric Town''). This area is part of the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts of Chiyoda. There is an ...

, the shrine has become a mecca for technophiles who frequent Akihabara.

History

Kanda Shrine was first built in the second year of the

Tenpyō was a after '' Jinki'' and before ''Tenpyō-kanpō.'' This period spanned the years from August 729 through April 749. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 729 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The p ...

Era (730 AD), in the fishing village of Shibasaki, near the modern

Ōtemachi is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is located north of Tokyo Station and Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, west of Nihonbashi and south of Kanda. It is the location of the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most an ...

district. In order to accommodate the expansion of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

, the shrine was later moved to the former Kanda ward in 1603, then moved once again to its modern site on a small hill near

in 1616. The shrine has been rebuilt and restored many times. The current structure was destroyed in the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (, or ) was a major earthquake that struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshu at 11:58:32 JST (02:58:32 UTC) on Saturday, 1 September 1923. It had an approximate magnitude of 8.0 on the mom ...

and rebuilt in 1934 with concrete, and thus survived the Tokyo

firebombing Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary d ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, unlike many of Japan's historical structures. Restoration is being done on Kanda Shrine, and work continues today. Due to its proximity to the Akihabara Electric Town, the shrine has become a mecca for the technophiles who frequent Akihabara. The Kanda Shrine sells

talismans A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

specifically for blessing electronic devices against the types of harm that could come to them.

Architecture

The two-storey main gate, Zuishin-mon (隨神門), marks the entrance to Kanda Shrine. Zuishin-mon was reconstructed in 1995 with

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

wood, and is built with an

irimoya The East Asian hip-and-gable roof (''Xiēshān'' (歇山) in Chinese, ''Paljakjibung'' (팔작지붕) in Korean and ''Irimoya'' (入母屋) in Japanese) also known as 'resting hill roof', consists of a hip roof that slopes down on all four side ...

styled roof. The shrine building is constructed in the Shinto style of

Gongen-zukuri , also called , and , is a complex Shinto shrine structure in which the '' haiden'', or worship hall, and the ''honden'', or main sanctuary, are interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H.Encyclopedia of Shinto''Gongen-zukuri''acces ...

. It is painted vermilion, and decorated with gold and lacquered interiors. Many sculptures of its enshrined

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

can be found on the building grounds.

Enshrined kami

The three major kami enshrined are

Daikokuten is a syncretic Japanese deity of fortune and wealth. Daikokuten originated from Mahākāla, the Buddhist conflated with the native Shinto god Ōkuninushi. Overview Mahākāla in East Asian Buddhism The Sanskrit term 'Mahākāla' ("Great B ...

, Ebisu, and

Taira no Masakado was a Heian period provincial magnate (''gōzoku'') and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto. Along with Sugawara no Michizane and Emperor Sutoku, he is of ...

. As Daikokuten and Ebisu both belong to the

Seven Gods of Fortune In Japanese mythology, the are believed to grant good luck and are often represented in netsuke and in artworks. One of the seven (Jurōjin) is said to be based on a historical figure. They all began as remote and impersonal gods, but gradually ...

(Japanese, "Shichifukujin"), Kanda Shrine is a popular place for businessmen and entrepreneurs to pray for wealth and prosperity. Taira no Masakado was a land-owning government official who led a massive insurrection against the

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto * Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms) * ...

government and declared himself the "New Emperor" (新皇). He was later elevated to the status of a local kami out of a mixture of fear and reverence. He is an important figure in the shrine's history. After his defeat in 940 AD, he was

decapitated Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common ...

Fujiwara no Hidesato was a Japanese aristocrat, courtier, folk hero and samurai lord of the tenth century in the Heian period. He is famous for his military exploits and courage, and is regarded as the common ancestor of numerous clans, including the Ōshū branch ...

and his severed head was brought to the Shibasaki (

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

) area in a wooden bucket (首桶) and buried on a low hill near the shrine's location today. Locals who respected his defiance, and fearing his curse, enshrined him in Kanda Shrine, and his spirit is said to watch over the surrounding areas. It was rumored that when his shrine fell into disrepair, Masakado's angry spirit wrought natural disasters and plagues upon the nearby lands. It is also said that Tokugawa Ieyasu felt uncomfortable to have his castle built close to such a powerful spirit, and so decided to move Kanda Shrine to its modern location. During the

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

, the

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

was faced with public pressure to include Kanda Shrine in the , but hesitated to do so because of the shrine's association with Taira no Masakado, who was seen as a dangerous anti-government

demagogue A demagogue (; ; ), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, Appeal to emotion, appealing to emo ...

. This was temporarily resolved by removing Taira no Masakado as an enshrined kami. However, Masakado's spirit proved so popular amongst the commoners, that it was symbolically returned to the shrine after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Festivals

Kanda festival (Kanda Matsuri) is one of the three major

festivals A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

of Tokyo, started in 1600 by Tokugawa Ieyasu to celebrate his decisive victory at the

battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

. At the time, the festival was important enough to be named a state festival, and its highly decorated

mikoshi A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when ...

were paraded down the main streets and into Edo castle, so that even the ''shōgun'' could observe the celebrations. Today, it is held in honor of the enshrined kami, and celebrated around May 15 of every odd year. Daikoku festival is also held at Kanda Shrine in January.

Cultural references

In the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and multimedia franchise ''

Love Live! School Idol Project is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. It is the first multimedia project in the ''Love Live!'' franchise. The project revolves aro ...

'', the character Nozomi Tojo serves as a shrine maiden at the Kandamyoujin shrine, while she and the other members of protagonist idol group μ's train by running up and down stairs leading to the shrine. In 2015, the shrine's administrators named Nozomi as an official mascot.

Images

File:Kanda-Myojin torii.JPG,

Torii A is a traditional culture of Japan, Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred, and a spot where kami are welcomed and thought to ...

File:Kanda shrine paper lantern.jpg, Paper lantern File:KandaMyojin8816.jpg,

Chōzuya is a Shinto water ablution pavilion for a ceremonial purification rite known as ''temizu'' or . The pavilion contains a large water-filled basin called a . At shrines, these ''chōzubachi'' are used by a worshipper to wash their left hand, r ...

pavilion File:Kanda shrine.jpg, The

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 ...

File:KandaMyojinLanterns8758.jpg, Lanterns File:KandaMyojinRooflines8768.jpg, Roof designs File:KandaMyojinRailOrnaments8756.jpg, Rail ornamentation File:KandaMyojinZenigataHeiji8801.jpg, Monument to Zenigata Heiji File:Kanda Matsuri 2009-1 in Akihabara.jpg,

Kanda Matsuri or the Kanda Festival, is one of the three great Shinto Festivals in Tokyo, festivals of Tokyo, along with the Fukagawa Matsuri and Sannō Matsuri. The festival started in the early 17th century as a celebration of Tokugawa Ieyasu's decisive vic ...

File:100 views edo 010.jpg,

Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

References

External links

Official Site
(Japanese) {{Authority control Beppyo shrines Shinto shrines in Tokyo Rebuilt buildings and structures in Japan Kanda, Tokyo Buildings and structures in Chiyoda, Tokyo Religious buildings and structures completed in 1934 Shinto in Tokyo 1934 establishments in Japan Tokyo Ten Shrines Fu-sha