Inage Shrine

Inage Shrine has no recorded founding date, but its sacred ginkgo is estimated at a thousand years old, which places its origins in the Heian period at the latest. Shrine tradition holds that it was founded during a period of prolonged unrest in the eastern provinces, enshrining the war deity Takemikatsuchi and serving as a place to pray for victory. The twelfth emperor, Keiko, is said to have sheltered here from bandits while travelling through the east. Later, in the reign of the twenty-ninth emperor, Kinmei, continued turmoil in the region prompted imperial offerings and the enshrinement of four further deities – Futsunushi, Kukurihime, Izanagi, and Izanami – with prayers not only for victory but for the reconciliation and cooperation that would follow.

That pairing still defines the shrine today. Its divine virtues are described simply as victory and harmony (katsu to wa). Takemikatsuchi and Futsunushi, both deities of martial prowess, are said to grant the strength to overcome trials, hardship, and illness. Kukurihime, a deity of reconciliation, is remembered for listening to both Izanagi and Izanami during a quarrel and bringing them back together; Izanagi and Izanami, the first married pair among the gods and the creators of all things, are likewise said to bestow a spirit of harmony.

History and the name

The shrine's fortunes rose and fell with the political tide. Under the Kamakura shogunate it was well endowed, and Minamoto no Yoritomo ordered its buildings rebuilt; the Ashikaga period saw that support sharply reduced, after the head priest of the day backed the losing side. Both Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa shogunate later restored a grant of land, and the shrine flourished through the peaceful Edo centuries as tutelary shrine to the post town of Kawasaki-shuku and seven surrounding villages. Its grand festival, held on the fifteenth day of the sixth month, drew such crowds that it became known as the "Gion of the East" and counted among the notable sights along the highway.

The shrine has been called many things. It began as Takemikatsuchi-no-miya, after its principal deity, and became Kawasaki Sanno-sha in the late Heian period when the local lord invited the deity Sanno Gongen here. That title came from a school of thought that fused Buddhist and Shinto practice, which made it a casualty of the Meiji government's policy of separating the two: in 1868, a visiting imperial prince remarked that the name no longer suited the new government's direction, and the shrine was renamed after Inage-no-sho, the estate where it stood. The name settled as Inage Shrine by the middle of the Meiji era, though the old title survives in its festival, still called the Kawasaki Sanno Festival.