is a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

located in the city of Tsu,

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

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 ...

. Its main festival is held annually on May 1, 2 and 3. It is one of the

Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration image:Minatogawa-jinja shinmon.jpg, Minatogawa Shrine The Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration (建武中興十五社, ''Kenmu chūko jūgosha'') are a group of Shinto shrines dedicated to individuals and events of the Kenmu Restoration. Re ...

History

Yūki Munehiro Yūki Munehiro (結城宗広) (1266 – January 1, 1339) He was a Kamakura Period military figure who defended the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō period. He is enshrined at Yūki Shrine in Tsu, Mie is the capital city of Mie Pr ...

(1266 – 1339) was a vassal of the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...

who had been entrusted with southern Mutsu Province and was castellan of Shirakawa Castle He was dispatched by

Hōjō Takatoki was the last '' Tokusō'' and ruling Shikken (regent) of Japan's Kamakura shogunate; the rulers that followed were his puppets. A member of the Hōjō clan, he was the son of Hōjō Sadatoki, and was preceded as ''shikken'' by Hōjō Mototo ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

in 1331 during the

Genkō War The , also known as the , was a civil war fought in Japan between the Emperor Go-Daigo and the Kamakura Shogunate from 1331 to 1333. The Genkō War was named after Genkō, the Japanese era corresponding to the period of 1331 to 1334 when the wa ...

, but subsequently defected to the side of

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order o ...

. He returned as one of

Nitta Yoshisada also known as Minamoto no Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famo ...

's generals during the 1333 Battle of Kamakura to overthrow the Hōjō. Following the

Kenmu Restoration The was a three-year period of Imperial rule in Japanese history between the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period from 1333 to 1336. The Kenmu Restoration was an effort made by Emperor Go-Daigo to overthrow the ruling Kamakura Shogunate ...

, he served alongside

Kusunoki Masashige , or , was a Japanese military commander and samurai of the Kamakura period remembered as the ideal loyal samurai. Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genkō War to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate and restore power in Japan to the ...

as an aide to Emperor Go-Daigo and assisted

Kitabatake Akiie was a Japanese court noble, and an important supporter of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō Wars. He also held the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North, and Governor of Mutsu Province. His father was Imperial ad ...

conquer Mutsu Province. When

Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...

rebelled against Emperor Go-Daigo, he led the army which retook Kyoto from the Ashikaga in 1336 and was awarded a sword from the emperor. However, in 1338 Ashikaga Takauji retook Kyoto, and Yūki Munehiro was forced to flee to

Yoshino, Nara is a towns of Japan, town located in Yoshino District, Nara, Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 5,874 in 2997 households, and a population density of 61 persons per km2. The total area of the t ...

where Emperor Go-Daigo had established the

Southern Court The were a set of four emperors ( Emperor Go-Daigo and his line) whose claims to sovereignty during the Nanboku-chō period spanning from 1336 through 1392 were usurped by the Northern Court. This period ended with the Southern Court definitivel ...

. He subsequently crossed into

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

and attempted to take a boat back to Mutsu to rally his forces against the Ashikaga, but was shipwrecked and died. In 1824,

Tōdō Takasawa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the middle Edo period. He was the 10th ''daimyō'' from the Tōdō clan to ruled Tsu Domain in Ise and Iga Provinces. Biography Takasawa was born in 1781 as the son of the previous daimyo of Tsu Domain, Tōdō ...

, the ''

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 no ...

'' of

Tsu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Tō ...

erected a small shrine on the site of his grave. Following 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

and the establishment of

State Shinto was Empire of Japan, 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 Kannushi, priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that ...

, 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 ...

wished to sponsor patriotism by recalling the events and people of the previous Kenmu Restoration. Yūki Shrine was given the official status of a village shrine in 1879 under the

Modern system of ranked Shinto shrines Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philos ...

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 ...

visited Mie Prefecture the following year and made an offering of 200

Yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

to the shrine. The shrine was promoted to special status in 1882 as one of the "Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration". The shrine was burned down in July 1945 during World War II, and was reconstructed in the late 1950s. It is located approximately one kilometer southeast of Akogi Station on the

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Cen ...

References

External links

Mie Prefectural tourism websiteTsu city tourism website
Shinto shrines in Mie Prefecture 1879 establishments in Japan Tsu, Mie Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration Bekkaku Kanpeisha {{Shinto-shrine-stub

History

See also

References

External links