Okita-jinja, Shinto shrine in Japan
Okita-jinja is a Shinto shrine in Naka-ku, Okayama, founded in 1694 as the tutelary shrine of the Okinoshinden reclamation. It enshrines Amaterasu, Susanoo, Kagutsuchi, Uganomitama, Kukunochi and Okita-hime. A five-ringed stupa and small shrine beneath the main hall are said to commemorate a woman named Kita, offered as a human pillar during the final dike closure in 1692.
Okita-jinja was founded in 1694 by order of Ikeda Tsunamasa, lord of Okayama, as the tutelary shrine of the Oki-shinden reclamation. First built in Fukushima, it moved to Okimoto Miyaji the same year, then to its present site in 1709 because the low ground flooded. It became a village shrine in the early Meiji era and a prefectural shrine in 1923.
The shrine's main deity includes Okita-hime, a young woman named Kita who, by legend, was offered to the dragon god as a human sacrifice during the final tide-blocking work on the Okinoshinden reclamation in 1692; a five-ringed stupa and small shrine beneath the main hall are said to honour her. Within the grounds stands Dotsugu, a subordinate shrine to Sarutahiko-no-Mikoto, moved here in 1800 by descendants of Shimizu Naganosuke, who fled to western Oshima in 1582 guided by a white snake.
The shrine stands at 411 Okimoto, Naka-ku, Okayama. The nearest stop is the Ryobi bus stop "Okimoto" on the Saidaiji line, about three minutes on foot from there. The grounds include the subsidiary shrine Dotsugu-gu, dedicated to Sarutahiko-no-Mikoto.
The shrine's name is tied to a legend: during the final tide-blocking work on the Okinoshinden reclamation in 1692, a young woman named Kita was said to be offered as a human sacrifice to the dragon god. A five-tiered stone pagoda and a small shrine beneath the main hall are thought to honour her, and she is worshipped as Okita-hime.
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