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 Miyauchi neighborhood of the town of Yurihama in

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

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 ...

, on the east bank of

Lake Tōgō is a brackish lake located in the town of Yurihama, Tottori Prefecture in the San'in Region of Japan. It has a circumference of 12 kilometers and is separated from the Sea of Japan by a narrow coastal strip. Lake Tōgō was a cove in ancien ...

. It is the ''

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 former

Hōki Province was a former province in the area that is today the western half of Tottori Prefecture in the San'in region of Japan. Hōki was bordered by Inaba, Mimasaka, Izumo, Bitchū, and Bingo Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of ...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on 1 May.

Enshrined ''kami''

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 ...

'' enshrined at Shitori Shrine are: * * * * * * *

History

The origins of Shitori Shrine are unknown. Although there is no documentary evidence, it is believed that it began as the family shrine for the of

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

craftsmen who weavers, who regarded as their ancestor. However, the shrine's legends are all centered around , whom the shrine legend claims arrived in this location from

Izumo Izumo (出雲) may refer to: Locations * Izumo Province, an old province of Japan * Izumo, Shimane, a city located in Shimane Prefecture ** Izumo Airport * Izumo-taisha, one of Japan's most ancient and important Shinto shrines Ships * ''Izumo ...

by boat. She established her residence on the mountain behind this shrine, and after her death, she was buried in a ''

kofun are megalithic tombs or tumulus, tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞 ...

'' constructed in the shrine's precincts. The earliest this shrine appears in documentary records is in the AD 808 medical text . During 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 shine was laid to waste, but it was reconstructed by the

Amago clan The , descended from the Emperor Uda (868–897) by the Kyogoku clan, descending from the Sasaki clan (Uda Genji). Kyogoku Takahisa in the 14th century, lived in Amako-go (Izumo Province), and took the name 'Amago'. The family crest is also t ...

and was later supported by the

Ikeda clan was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021) of the Seiwa Genji. Minamoto no Yasumasa, the fourth generation descending from Yorimitsu, and younger brother of Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104-1180), was the first to ...

, 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 ...

Tottori Domain 270px, Ikeda Yoshinori 270px, Front gate of the Tottori Domain residence in Edo was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now Tottori Prefecture on the island of Honshu. It controlled all of Inaba Prov ...

. 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 ...

era 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 shrine was rated as a 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 ...

Hōki Ichinomiya Sutra Mound

Until the early 20th century, Shitateruhime-no-Mikoto was regarded as the primary deity of this shrine. However, in 1915 an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

discovered that the purported ''empun''-style circular burial mound was actually a

sutra mound A is an archaeological site where sūtras were buried underground. In Japanese Buddhism, it is a type of good deed, and was done as a type of puja. Examples of sutra mounds include the Katsuragi 28 Shuku in the Kansai region of Japan. Descr ...

. The mound had a diameter of 16-meters and height of 1.6 meters. It contains a rectangular stone box that was 1.2 x 0.9 x 0.5 meters made of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

flat stones. The inside was covered with coarse sand, and contained copper sutra cylinder with inscriptions. The inscription was dated 1103 and was inscribed by monk named Kyoson of the Hōki Ichinomiya. In addition to the sutra cylinder, the box contained a gilt-bronze statue of

Kannon Bosatsu Guanyin () is a common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means " he One WhoPerceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as m ...

, an image of

Miroku Bosatsu Miroku may refer to: * Japanese for "Maitreya Buddha": as prophesied by the Buddha before entering nirvana. * Miroku, the character in the anime and manga series '' InuYasha''. * Miroku Corp., a gun manufacturer. * Miroku, a character in Naruto: ...

engraving on a copper plate, a bronze mirror, a cypress fan, a short sword, beads, and copper coins. The sutra tube was buried in 1103 ( Kōwa 5) and marked as "2052 years after the death of the Buddha Sakyamani". The sutra mounds are valuable in considering the burial memorial service in the Heian period. The sutra mound was designated as a National Historic Site in 1935. All excavated items are stored at the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō wards of Tokyo, ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the , is considered the oldest national museum and the largest art museum in Japan. The museum collects, prese ...

Location

The shrine is located a 35-minute walk from Matsuzaki Station on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

Cultural Properties

National Treasures

Gallery

Shitori-jinja Kyoduka.jpg, Sutra Mound 伯耆一宮経塚出土金銅観音菩薩立像・銅造千手観音菩薩立像.JPG, Recovered artifacts from the Sutra Mound 伯耆一宮経塚出土品.JPG, Recovered artifacts from the Sutra Mound 倭文神社の狛犬 - panoramio.jpg, Komainu

References

External links

Official home pageTottori Tourist Information Tottori prefecture Cultural properties navigation
{{Authority control Shinto shrines in Tottori Prefecture Hōki Province Yurihama, Tottori Ichinomiya Historic Sites of Japan National Treasures of Japan Beppyo shrines Kokuhei Shōsha Shikinai Shosha