HItsujisaki-jinja, Shinto shrine in Japan
Hitsujisaki-jinja stands on the summit of Mount Maki, about 250 metres above sea level on the left bank of the Kitakami River. Its worship hall is the former main hall of the Buddhist temple Chōzen-ji, rebuilt in 1935, and the main hall behind it dates from 1928. A stone reliquary tower from 1814 stands to the right of the worship hall.
The shrine's founding date is unknown; a 1772 gazetteer records that it was established on Mount Makiyama by imperial order from the western provinces. In the Edo period it was identified with the Engishiki-listed Hitsujisaki Shrine, and in 1870, after the separation of Shinto and Buddhism, the former Makiyama Kannon temple became Hitsujisaki Shrine. The 2011 tsunami reached the foot of Mount Makiyama, and residents evacuated to the shrine grounds.
The name Hitsujisaki comes from the deity Himitsunisake no Kami, who was granted this name in the 2nd year of Emperor Ōjin's reign. The shrine was later identified with the Engishiki-listed Hitsujisaki Shrine, and in the Edo period it was also called Hakusan Shrine. Today visitors can see the large votive tablets of a white horse and a black horse inside the worship hall, both designated cultural properties of Ishinomaki.
The shrine stands on the summit of Mount Maki, about 250 metres above sea level on the left bank of the Kitakami River. The approach starts at the first torii beside the Daimonzaki pedestrian bridge on National Route 398, south of the hill, and continues on foot to the top. The path to Eizon Shrine and the subordinate shrines on the west side is unpaved.
This shrine once held the status of Shikinaisha, a formal designation recorded in an imperial court register during the Heian period that was granted to only a small number of shrines across each province. That listing placed it among the officially recognized places of worship at a time when such recognition was rare along this coast.
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