王勢籠神社, Shinto shrine in Japan
Oserou Shrine in Uenohara consists of a village shrine (satomiya) in the Washimi area, on the grounds of the former priest's house, and a mountain-top inner shrine (okumiya) on the summit of Gongen-yama in adjacent Otsuki. The satomiya is now unoccupied by a resident priest. The shrine is dedicated to Yamato Takeru, and its grounds include a hall and secondary structures.
The founding date is unknown, but the shrine appears as "Oomure Gongen" in the Kai Province Gazetteer (Kai Kokushi), compiled in the Bunka era (1804–1818), and is marked on old village maps. A subscription ledger for repairs to the shrine building in 1844 survives at the former priest's house. A wooden plaque dated 1858 records a reconstruction, and four woodblocks and one plaque kept in a private home in Asakawa include a woodblock dated 1816.
The shrine's wolf faith took shape under the influence of Musashi Mitake Shrine in Tokyo's Ome, part of an Edo-period wolf cult centred on Mitsumine and Mitake that spread across eastern Kai, western Musashi and southern Sagano. The shrine keeps 75 divine dogs, and each May its regular festival distributes wolf talismans against fire, theft and crop damage.
The shrine has two parts: the satomiya stands on the priest's family grounds in Wami, Uenohara, and is now without a resident priest, while the okumiya sits on the summit of Gongenyama in Asakawa, Otsuki, on the far side of the mountain. The satomiya is the easier of the two to visit; reaching the summit shrine requires a mountain walk. Wolf talismans are handed out at the annual May festival.
The wooden printing blocks and one ridge plaque kept at a private house in Asakawa, Otsuki, across Gongen-yama from Wami, were reported in a 2009 survey: four blocks and one plaque. The blocks carry wolf and tengu images, and infrared photography revealed the date Bunka 13 (1816) on one of them.
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