Achi Shrine, Shinto shrine in Okayama Prefecture, Japan

Achi Shrine stands on Tsurugata-yama, a small hill north of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter. Its single-storey worship hall has a dark grey tiled hip-and-gable roof, white plaster walls and dark wooden lattice panels, with a twisted straw rope and four white zigzag paper streamers across the entrance. The precinct also holds a Noh stage, a Bashō hall and an ema hall, and the garden contains rock formations and a suikinkutsu.

The shrine grew from a garden made by the Achi clan on the hill then called Kamejima or Tsurugashima, in an area that was once the Achi district of Kuboya County facing the Kibi inlet. The three Munakata goddesses were enshrined there as guardians of sea traffic. The temple-town and port below flourished, and in the Edo period the Kurashiki daikansho was placed there, bringing merchants and making the shrine the chief guardian of old Kurashiki village.

The shrine's name comes from the Achi clan, descendants of Achi no Omi, who settled on the hill in antiquity. Its Fuji Matsuri runs from 3 to 5 May, when the Achi no Fuji wisteria, said to be Japan's largest and oldest, is in bloom; the city has adopted it as Kurashiki's city flower and the prefecture names it a natural monument. The shrine also hosts spring and autumn reitaisai, and its grounds hold a Noh stage and a Baishō-dō hall.

The shrine stands on top of Tsurugata-yama, a small hill north of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter; the approach is a paved slope entered from the lower left of the precinct. A few stone steps lead up to the raised wooden veranda of the worship hall. The grounds hold several boulders and rock formations, so watch your footing along the paths.

On the hilltop grounds stands a Noh stage, alongside a hall dedicated to the poet Matsuo Basho and a hall for votive plaques. The shrine also keeps a garden in the crane-and-turtle style and several rock formations, including one called Tenjin Iwakura, with a water zither basin in the garden of the Sai-kan hall.