Tamura-jinja, Shinto shrine in Tamura, Kōriyama, Japan
Tamura-jinja is a Shinto shrine in Kōriyama with traditional wooden buildings, a simple torii gate entrance, and well-maintained grounds surrounded by trees. The site features a main hall for rituals, a stone pathway guiding visitors to prayer areas, and several smaller shrines scattered across the grounds.
The shrine began as Chinshuzan Taiheiji, a temple founded by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro during his campaign against the Emishi, where he installed a statue of Dai Gensui Myōō as the main image. The zushi cabinet dates from the Azuchi-Momoyama period and the honden from the early Edo period. In 1689 Matsuo Bashō and Sora visited, as recorded in Sora's diary, and Asaka Gonsai came in 1836. During the Meiji era the temple was renamed Tamura-jinja under the separation of Shinto and Buddhism; the Buddhist implements went to nearby Entsūji, and after a lawsuit they were returned to the shrine while Entsūji continues to perform the rites.
The shrine's festival, Yamanaka Matsuri, was once held on the 13th and 14th of the sixth lunar month and now takes place on the third Saturday and Sunday of July, with stalls, Yamanaka drums, a harvest dance and mochi distributed. Some years the sacred images kept hidden before the separation of Buddhism and Shinto, the Shō Kannon and Dai Gentō Myōō statues, are put on display.
The shrine stands in the Yamanaka district of Tamura-machi, Kōriyama. From JR Iwaki-Moriyama Station on the Suigun Line it is a 1.4 km walk of about 20 minutes; buses from Kōriyama Station's west exit (platform 2) toward Higashiyama Reien, Yomogida or Baba stop at "Yamanaka". The stone steps of the front approach are steep, and viewing some cultural properties requires advance application.
The shrine keeps a sangaku, a wooden tablet of mathematical problems, donated in the Edo period; it is a municipal cultural property and part of a Japan Heritage listing. The main hall and the zushi cabinet that shelters the main image are both designated cultural properties, the cabinet at prefectural level.
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