Hida Ichinomiya Minashi Shrine, Shinto shrine in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Hida Ichinomiya Minashi Shrine stands in southern Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, with Mount Kurai (1,529 m) to the southwest as its sacred body. The main worship hall is a broad wooden building on a low stone base, its dark grey roof steeply curved with upswept corners; a light wood-and-white lattice band crosses the facade beneath a deep purple curtain marked with white circles, and dark blue banners hang at both ends. Four bare wooden frames with crossed legs stand on the pale gravel in front.
The shrine appears in records from the reign of Emperor Seiwa (858–876), when it held the junior fifth rank, and is listed as a minor shrine in the Engishiki. It was named ichinomiya of Hida Province and later called Minashi Daibosatsu in the Kamakura period. In 1692 it came under Yoshida Shinto, and in 1773 it was the meeting place of the An'ei peasant uprising, after which two priests were crucified.
The shrine's name, Minashi, is said to derive from the place name, and its main deity Gozu Tenno is called Minashi no Okami. On April 3 the Hida Ikibina Matsuri and sericulture festival are held here, begun in 1952 to pray for silkworm raising and farming. The shrine's sacred kagura performing arts are a prefecturally designated intangible folk cultural property.
The shrine is about eight minutes on foot from Hida-Ichinomiya Station on the JR Takayama Main Line. The approach is a straight stone-paved path, and the hall stands slightly raised on a stone base, so the entrance is reached by a low step. In winter the path is lined with deep snow banks and the roof ridge carries a thick layer of snow.
The shrine's sacred horse, a wooden statue of a horse eating rice attributed to the Edo-period carver Hidari Jingoro, is a local favourite with its own legend. The shrine also appears in the mystery novel series Classic Club, renamed Mizunashi Shrine, and its Hida Living Dolls festival inspired a 2013 anime collaboration.
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