Iwa-jinja, Shinto shrine in Japan
Iwa-jinja stands on a wooded hillside in the Taiheiji district of Kashiwara, with its office at the foot and the worship hall up a steep stone stairway. A large camphor tree in the grounds measures about 6 m around and over 16 m high, estimated at 700–800 years old. Beside the office lies the foundation stone of the east pagoda of Chishiki-ji, its pillar hole 122 cm across.
Iwa-jinja appears in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku as having been ranked among official shrines in the second month of Jōgan 9 (867), and is listed as a small shrine in the Engishiki register. In the Edo period it served Tairōji village as its tutelary shrine under the name Kumano Gongen. The hill once held Chishiki-ji, an ancient temple where Emperor Shōmu and Empress Kōken worshipped; its great Vairocana image is said to have moved Shōmu to build the Nara Great Buddha. The temple declined around the Muromachi period.
The shrine's name is written with the character for stone, and its main deity is Ishihime, daughter of Emperor Senka and empress of Emperor Kinmei; Ishinagahime and Kumano Gongen are also enshrined. In the Edo period it served as the tutelary shrine of Taiheiji village under the name Kumano Gongen. The July festival features a futon-daiko drum float carved by the Banshu craftsman Kuroda Masakatsu III.
The shrine stands on a hillside in the Taiheiji district, about 800 m east of Kintetsu Ando Station on the Osaka Line, roughly a 10-minute walk. The office is at the foot of the grounds; the main hall is reached by climbing a long stone stairway. The grounds hold a camphor tree about 6 m around and over 16 m tall, estimated at 700 to 800 years old and a designated Osaka Prefecture natural monument.
In the shrine office yard lies the foundation stone of the east pagoda of Chishiki-ji, an ancient temple that stood here until about the Muromachi period; its pillar hole measures 122 cm across and it was once used as the shrine's hand-washing stone. It is a Osaka Prefecture cultural property, now fenced off.
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