Ichinomiya Asama Shrine

The Ichinomiya Asama Jinja (一宮浅間神社) is a Shintō shrine in the city of Fuefuki in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It is the ichinomiya of former Kai Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on April 15.

Ichinomiya Asama Jinja
一宮浅間神社
Haiden of Ichinomiya Asama Jinja
Religion
AffiliationShinto
DeityKonohanasakuya-hime
TypeAsama Shrine
Location
Location1684 Ichinomiya-chō, Ichinomiya, Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi-ken
Shown within Yamanashi Prefecture
Ichinomiya Asama Shrine (Japan)
Geographic coordinates35°38′51.93″N 138°41′50.79″E
Architecture
StyleNagare-zukuri
Date established865 AD
Website
asamajinja.jp
Glossary of Shinto
First Torii

Enshrined kami

The primary kami of the Ichinomiya Asama Jinja is Konohanasakuya-hime (木花咲耶姫), the daughter of Ōyamatsu-no-mikoto (大山祇命). Mount Fuji was deified and its kami was named Asama no Okami (浅間大神), also known as Asama Daimyōjin (浅間大明神), Asama Gongen (浅間権現) or Sengen Daibōsatsu (浅間大菩薩), and is associated with Konohanasakuya-hime.

History

The foundation of the Ichinomiya Asama Jinja predates the historical period. Per shrine tradition, it was established in reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Suinin, with the shrine first built on its current location in 865 AD. Per the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, this was a period of intense volcanic activity on Mount Fuji, and the shrine was built in order to appease the kami of the mountain. The shrine is located near the site of the provincial temple of Kai Province, the Kai Kokubun-ji and the provincial capital during the Nara and Heian periods. The temple is mentioned in the Engishiki records of 926 AD as the ichinomiya of Kai Province. Through the Sengoku period, the Takeda clan patronized of the shrine, and its extensive land holdings in central Kai Province were confirmed by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the start of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the post-Meiji restoration system of State Shinto, the shrine was officially designated one of the Kokuhei Chūsha (国幣中社), in the Modern system of ranked Shinto shrines.

The Haiden of the shrine was built in 1672.

Cultural Properties

Important Cultural Properties

The Ichinomiya Asama Jinja owns a Shinju-kyo bronze mirror which was recovered from the nearby Toriiharakitsunezuka Kofun burial mound. The mirror has an engraving around its rim, giving the Chinese Regnal year of 238 AD, a date corresponding to then Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It is the earliest positively dated mirror in Japan and raises the intriguing possibility that trade existed between proto-Japanese Kofun period states and the mainland of Asia during the Kofun period. The mirror was designated an National Important Cultural Property on June 6, 1979.[1]

See also

References
  1. "山梨の文化財ガイド（データベース）考古資料01" (in Japanese). Yamanashi Prefecture.

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