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

Ōtsu 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153,458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History Ōtsu is ...

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

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 ...

. This shrine is one of the

Twenty-Two Shrines The of Japan is one ranking system for Shinto shrines. The system was established during the Heian period and formed part of the government's systematization of Shinto during the emergence of a general anti-Chinese sentiment and the suppression o ...

. Known before

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 ...

as or Hie jinja, "Hiyoshi" is now the preferred spelling. It was also known as the . The head shrine in Ōtsu heads the seventh largest shrine network in Japan, with approximately 3800 Hiyoshi, Hie, and Sannō shrines nationwide.

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 ...

of this shrine have a distinctive configuration, known as the " Sannō torii", with a gaggle above the main crossbeam. The 400,000 square meter precincts centered is designated as a National Historic Site, and the east and west main shrine buildings, the and are designated as

National Treasures A national treasure is a structure, artifact, object or cultural work that is officially or popularly recognized as having particular value to the nation, or representing the ideals of the nation. The term has also been applied to individuals or ...

, and many of the structures in the precincts are designated as National Important Cultural Properties.

Enshrined ''kami''

;Main shrine * Nishi Hongū: * Higashi Hongū: ;Subsidiary shrines * Ushio-gū: * Juge Jinja: * Sannomiya-gū: * Usa-gū: * Shirayama-gū:

History

The first mention of the ''

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 ...

'' Oyamakui is recorded in

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

, written in the 8th century AD, which states that this god resides at

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...

, which is located immediately to the east of Hiyoshi Taisha. This ''kami'' was relocated from the summit of the mountain to its present location in the seventh year of the reign of the semi-legendary

Emperor Sujin , also known as in the , and or in the was the tenth Emperor of Japan. While Sujin is the first emperor whose existence historians widely accept, he is still referred to as a "legendary emperor" due to a lack of information available and beca ...

, or 90 BC per the traditional calendar. In 668 AD,

Emperor Tenji , known first as and later as until his accession, was the 38th emperor of Japan who reigned from 668 to 671. He was the son of Emperor Jomei and Empress Kōgyoku (Empress Saimei), and his children included Empress Jitō, Empress Genmei, an ...

decided to relocate the capital to

Ōmi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō Circuit (subnational entity), circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, ...

and built the

Ōtsu Palace 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153,458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History Ōtsu is p ...

. At this time, the ''kami'' of

Ōmiwa Shrine , also known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is notable because it contains no sacred images or objects, since it is believed to serve Mount Miwa, the mountain on which it stands. For the same ...

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

(who served as protector of the imperial dynasty) was relocated as well, and was installed in the Nishi Hongū, whereas the original sanctuary came to be called the Higashi Hongū. In 788 AD,

Saichō was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Japanese Tendai school of Buddhism. He was awarded the posthumous title of Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師). Recognized for his significant contributions to the development of Japanese Budd ...

erected the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

complex of

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

on Mount Hiei. After the transfer of the capital to

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...

, Enryaku-ji and by extension, Hiyoshi Taisha came to be guardians of the spiritually vulnerable northeast quadrant from the capital. As Enryaku-ji became ever more powerful, and the Buddhist faith gradually amalgamated with Shinto under the ''

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 ...

'' policy, Hiyoshi Taisha was subsumed into Enryaku-ji. As missionaries from Enryaku-ji built Buddhist temples all across Japan, they also spread the faith in the "

Sanno Gongen Oyamakui no Kami () is a Japanese god highly significant in Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō, and worshipped in the Hiyoshi Taisha network of shrines

" and the Hie ''kami''. The shrine became the object of Imperial patronage during the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. In 965,

Emperor Murakami The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother ( empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rul ...

ordered that Imperial messengers were sent to report important events to the guardian ''kami'' of Japan,Ponsonby-Fane, ''Shrines,'' p. 118. and Hie Taisha was added to this listing by

Emperor Go-Suzaku was the 69th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 後朱雀天皇 (69)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Suzaku's reign spanned the years from 1036 through 1045. This 11th-century sovereign was nam ...

in 1039. This unique number of Imperial-designated shrines has not been altered since that time. During the late

, political troubles arose between Enryaku-ji and the secular government in Kyoto. It became the practice of the warrior-monks from the temple to carry a ''

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 ...

'' portable shrine from Hie Taisha into the capital and to riot to enforce their political will. Soon after the '' kanpaku''

Fujiwara no Moromichi was a Japanese statesman, known for his opposition to the Insei system. He was the son of Fujiwara no Morozane. Career Moromochi's career spanned the years from 1069 to his death in 1099. He was made Regent ( Kampaku) in 1094. During his life ...

dared to oppose the riots by stopping the ''mikoshi'', he died under mysterious circumstances, which the temple was quick to attribute to a curse from the gods for having shown disrespect to the ''mikoshi''. The ''mikoshi'' of Hei Taisha thus became an object of fear and awe, and the temple used the tactic of running riot with the ''mikoshi'' to obtain their will on more than 40 occasions over a 370+ year period into the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. The practice was stopped in 1571 when

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

ordered Enryaku-ji to be razed to the ground, and all of its monks to be massacred. This also included Hie Taisha. The shrine was rebuilt under

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

, with the oldest buildings currently at the shrine dating from the period of 1586 to 1597. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a deep faith in the

Sanno Gongen Oyamakui no Kami () is a Japanese god highly significant in Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō, and worshipped in the Hiyoshi Taisha network of shrines

, as his childhood name was "Hiyoshi Maru" and his nickname was "monkey", an animal which was considered to be the spiritual messenger of the Hie ''kami''. The Nishi Hongū was reconstructed in 1586 and the Higashi Hongū in 1595.

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 ...

also had faith in the

Sanno Gongen Oyamakui no Kami () is a Japanese god highly significant in Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō, and worshipped in the Hiyoshi Taisha network of shrines

and the shrine was supported by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. In 1868 (the first year 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 new

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 ...

decreed the separation of Shinto and Buddhism. Hie Taisha was at the forefront of this effort, and was one of the first to burn or otherwise dispose of its Buddhist statuary, ritual implements and scriptures. This was the beginning of the nationwide ''

Haibutsu kishaku (literally "abolish Buddhism and destroy Shākyamuni") is a term that indicates a current of thought continuous in Japan's history which advocates the expulsion of Buddhism from Japan.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 shrive was officially designated one of the , or Imperial shrine of the first rank.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 125.

Gallery

Hiyoshi-taisha usagu01bs4592.jpg, Usa-gū (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha shirayamahime-jinja-haiden01n4592.jpg, Shirayama-gū (ICP) Hiyoshi Taisha shrine 日吉大社11 - panoramio.jpg, Higashi Hongū '' Romon'' (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha juge-jinja-honden01s4592.jpg, Juge Jinja (ICP) Hiyoshi-taisha ninomiyabashi01s4592.jpg, Ninomiya Bridge (ICP) Hiyoshi Taisha Momiji 1.jpg,

on the ''

Momiji ''Acer palmatum'', commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Korean: ''danpungnamu'' []; Japanese: ''irohamomiji'' [] or ''momiji'' []), is a species of woody plant native to Korea, Japan, China, eastern Mongol ...

Matsuri'' evening (Maple Festival)

References

* Breen, John and

Mark Teeuwen Mark J. Teeuwen (Marcus Jacobus Teeuwen, born 9 February 1966, Eindhoven) is a Dutch academic and Japanologist. He is an expert in Japanese religious practices, and he is a professor at the University of Oslo.University of Oslo faculty CV/ref> In a ...

. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 399449
* ____________. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* ''Hieizan Rekishi no Sampomichi'',

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

, 1995,

External links

山王総本宮　日吉大社
- Hiyoshi Taisha's official website (Japanese) Kanpei Taisha Shinto shrines in Shiga Prefecture Buildings and structures in Ōtsu National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Shiga Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1586 Beppyo shrines Myōjin Taisha Twenty-Two Shrines Sannō Ichijitsu Shintō Taisha Hiyoshi-zukuri Hiyoshi Taisha {{Hiyoshi Faith

Enshrined ''kami''

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links