Hie-hachiman-jinja, Shinto shrine in Japan
Hie-hachiman-jinja is a small Shinto shrine in Akita, Japan, featuring traditional wooden buildings and a quiet setting. The grounds include several smaller structures and stone lanterns arranged along maintained pathways that create a peaceful impression.
According to shrine tradition it was founded in the Heian period, though a Kamakura-period origin is also argued. It moved repeatedly: from Sasaoka to Gojūchō in the Kamakura period, to Iijima in 1589 under Andō Sanesue, to Teranouchi in 1615 under Satake Yoshinobu, and to its present site in 1662. Burned down, it was rebuilt in 1778; the main hall dates from 1797.
The shrine is known locally as Yabashi no Sannō and served as the tutelary shrine of the Sotomachi merchant districts after the 1615 Kubota town plan. Its deities are Ōyamakui-no-Mikoto and Hondawake-no-Mikoto. In the honden stands a seated statue of the Edo-period scholar Motoori Norinaga.
The shrine stands at 1-4-1 Yabashi-honcho, north of Yabashi Athletic Park, between the old national road's milestone and Omokage Bridge. By bus from Akita Station take the Shogunno line and get off at Kyugijo-mae. Parking is available; on weekends one lane in front of Aigin Stadium may be used for parking.
The shrine grounds hold a monument to Ishikawa Rikinosuke, an agricultural reformer honoured here in 1918, and a calligraphy brush mound erected by the Akita Prefecture Calligraphy Federation in 2001. The large purification basin was renewed in November 2017, replacing one dated 1769.
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