Awa Shrine, Shinto shrine in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Awa Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Ikegaya, Oasa-cho, Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture. Its broad hall stands on a low stone base beneath a greenish curved metal roof, with a lower matching roof over side wings. Dark wooden bays are divided by round pillars, a bell rope and tasseled rope hang across the front, and pale stone steps lead to the center.
Emperor Tsuchimikado, exiled to Tosa in 1221 after the Jōkyū War, moved to Awa in 1223 and died there in 1231; his cremation mound lies in the shrine grounds. A shrine called Tsuchimikado Tennō-sha stood north of the mound, and in 1875 it was renamed Maruyama Shrine. In 1940, for the 2,600th imperial anniversary, it became Awa Shrine and a new hall was built northeast of the mound, completed in 1943, when it was ranked a prefectural shrine. A proposal for grand shrine status lapsed after the war.
The shrine's deity is Emperor Tsuchimikado, whose cremation mound lies within the grounds under Imperial Household Agency jurisdiction. People long worshipped a shrine called "Tennō-san" north of the mound, recorded in the Awa-shi as the emperor's tomb at the foot of Tennō-yama. Annual rites include the Yudate kagura on 11 February, the Kinensai with Daidai kagura on 29 April, a summer festival on the first Sunday of July, and the autumn reisai on 11 October with kagura and a mikoshi procession.
The shrine sits beside a prefectural road and is easy to reach by car. A free parking area accommodates about 20 vehicles, and the nearest train station is approximately a 10-minute walk away.
The cremation mound of Emperor Tsuchimikado lies within the shrine grounds and is administered by the Imperial Household Agency, not the shrine itself. The emperor died here in 1231 after being exiled to Awa following the Jōkyū War. The shrine was set to be ranked as a top-tier kanpei taisha in 1943, but the postwar abolition of the modern shrine ranking system prevented formal designation.
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