Tamasaki Shrine, Shinto shrine in Ichinomiya, Chōsei District, Chiba Prefecture, Japan
Tamasaki Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Ichinomiya, Chiba Prefecture, and the ichinomiya of former Kazusa Province. Its main hall, offering hall and worship hall are joined in the gongen-zukuri style, built in 1687 and painted black lacquer. The complex is a Chiba Prefecture Designated Tangible Cultural Property.
Tamasaki Shrine's founding date is unknown; fires destroyed its old records and buildings, but it has stood for over 1,200 years. It appears in the 868 Ruijū Kokushi and the 877 Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, and the Engishiki lists it as ichinomiya of Kazusa Province. Burned in 1562 during a battle involving the Satomi clan, it was rebuilt by the Satomi in 1587, received structures from Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1591, and was reconstructed in 1687. In 1871 it was ranked a kokuhei-chūsha.
The shrine's name is written 玉前 but also appears in old records as 玉崎 or 玉埼. Its September 13 festival is a naked festival called the Kazusa Jūnisha Matsuri, designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Chiba Prefecture. Kagura with about 300 years of history, now 25 of once 36 pieces, is performed several times a year.
The shrine is a seven-minute walk from Kazusa-Ichinomiya Station on the JR East Sotobō Line, or reachable by car from the Mobara-Nagatomi Interchange of the Ken-Ō Expressway. The main festival is held on September 13. The former betto temple, Kanmyō-ji, stands nearby; its Konpira Hall was moved there from the shrine grounds in 1879.
The shrine's bronze mirror, the Baijusōjakukyō, is a National Important Cultural Property. It is 20.5 cm across and made of cupronickel, with two small holes at the edge thought to show it once hung before the shrine as a shintai. Its back shows running water, an old plum tree and two sparrows.
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