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 ...

in the Susaki neighborhood of the city of Tateyama in

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

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 ...

. It is one of two shrines claiming to hold the title of ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

'' of the former Awa Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on August 20.

Enshrined ''kami''

The primary ''

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 ...

'' enshrined at Susaki Jinja is: *, the consort of Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto who is worshipped at the Awa Shrine.

History

Per the ''

Kogo Shūi is a historical record of the Inbe clan of Japan written in the early Heian period (794–1185). It was composed by (斎部広成) in 807 using material transmitted orally over several generations of the Imbe clan, Inbe clan. Background Histor ...

'' records dated 807 AD, early during the reign of the legendary

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

in what is now the province of Awa in search of fertile land, and established a settlement together with the Inbe clan. He brought with him a mirror which had been owned by his grandmother, Ama no Hirinome, which he enshrined on Mount Mitarai, and this was the start of the Susaki Shrine. According to the shrine's legend, during the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

, the shrine was visited by

En no Gyōja was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō, the path of ascetic training practiced by the ''gyōja'' or ''yamabushi''. He was banished by the Imperial Court to Izu Ōshima on June 26, 699, but folk t ...

after a landslide had buried the "mirror pond" in the precincts, thus releasing a great snake which had to be vanquished. In addition, En no Gyōja placed one sacred stone on the coast in front of a

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 ...

gate which faced the coast, and another at the Awakuchi Shrine in

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 373,797, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th-most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city i ...

on the opposite side of

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

for maritime safety. These legends illustrate the close connection the shrine had with ''

Shinbutsu-shūgō ''Shinbutsu-shūgō'' (, "syncretism of kami and buddhas"), also called ''Shinbutsu-konkō'' (, "jumbling up" or "contamination of kami and buddhas"), is the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan, Buddhism that was Japan's main organized rel ...

'' and

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

. Since ancient times, the shrine had the right to collect toll taxes from passing ships. The shrine is mentioned in the ''

Shoku Nihon Kōki is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 869, it is the fourth volume in the Six National Histories. It covers the years 833–850. Following the earlier national history ''Nihon Kōki'' (840), in 855 Emperor Montoku o ...

'', '' Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku'' and ''

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 858–887. Background Following the earlier nati ...

'' as well as the ''

Engishiki The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishi ...

'', and although a relatively small shrine, had attained the highest rank by 1081. This was partly due to the patronage of

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

, who landed on the coast close to this shrine after his defeat at the

Battle of Ishibashiyama The was the first in which Minamoto no Yoritomo, who became ''shōgun'' less than a decade later, was commander of the Minamoto forces. The battle was fought on September 14, 1180, in the southwest of present-day Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, ...

. Per the

Azuma Kagami is a Japanese historical chronicle. The medieval text chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō (the 6th shōgun) and his return to Kyoto in ...

, he credited the shrine with his safe passage, and for helping rally the local samurai bands of the Bōsō Peninsula to his banner to overthrow the

Heike clan The was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period of Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto, the Fujiwara, and the Tachibana. The clan is divided into four major groups, named af ...

. In the late

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 ...

, while surveying the coastline of

Edo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. T ...

with the purpose of establishing coastal defenses, the ''

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a wh ...

Matsudaira Sadanobu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the mid-Edo period, famous for his financial reforms which saved the Shirakawa Domain, and similar reforms he undertook during his tenure as chief of the Tokugawa shogunate, from 1787 to 1793. Early life Matsu ...

wrote an account in which he referred to the shine as the "Awa Ichinomiya Susaki Daimyōjin". This is the first mention of the shrine as the "Ichinomiya" of the province. After 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 ...

, the Susaki Jinja was designated the rank of prefectural shrine 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 ...

under

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 ...

.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 125.

Gallery

洲崎神社 (館山市) 浜鳥居.JPG, Seaside Torii 洲崎神社 (館山市) 本殿.JPG, Honden 洲崎神社 (館山市) 拝殿.JPG, Haiden 洲崎神社 (館山市) 随身門.JPG, Zuishin-mon 洲崎神社 (館山市) 神石.JPG, Sacred Stone

Notes

External links

*
Tateyama City Tourist Association

References

* Plutschow, Herbe. (1996). ''Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan''. London:

RoutledgeCurzon Routledge ( ) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, a ...