Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine: The Provincial Shrine of Former Kozuke
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Tokugawa
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Sanctuary
On this page23 sections
History
Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Tomioka, Japan, traditionally regarded as the highest-ranking shrine of former Kozuke Province. It stands on a fluvial terrace above the left bank of the Kabura River in southwestern Gunma, facing the historic route toward Shinano. Shrine tradition places its foundation on March 15 in approximately 534, when the Isobe lineage of the Mononobe-related Mononobe no Kimi group worshipped Futsunushi as its clan deity.
Foundation traditions
The shrine enshrines Futsunushi-no-kami and Hime-Okami. Futsunushi is a kami associated with martial power and the pacification of the land, while Hime-Okami is a title for a female great kami whose individual identity remains uncertain. One interpretation connects her with a deity of sericulture and weaving formerly associated with the area.
Several traditions describe the shrine’s early history. One states that an earlier sanctuary stood at Saginomiya, identified with present-day Sakisaki Shrine in Annaka, before worship moved to Ayame Valley near Yomogi Hill. A medieval account instead places the beginning around 535, when Nukihoko Daimyojin established a sacred presence by planting a reversed halberd on Sasaoka Mountain, and dates the construction of a shrine platform at Shobudani to 677. Another tradition says that Futsunushi was worshipped at Saginomiya in 534 and transferred to Ayame Valley in 650. These accounts preserve different explanations for the shrine’s origins and relocation.
Rise to provincial prominence
The first documentary reference to the shrine or its predecessor dates to 806, when the Shinsho Kyakuchokufu-sho recorded two households assigned to Nukihoko Shrine. National records first mention the shrine in 839 under the name Nukihoko Shrine, and in 859 they use the name Nukisaki Shrine. Both names continued to appear in later records, although the relationship between them and between the institutions they represented remains debated.
The Engishiki, a tenth-century compilation of court regulations, ritual procedures, and shrine registers, classified Nukisaki Shrine in 927 as a Myojin Taisha, one of the major shrines receiving formal recognition. Imperial attention increased during the Heian period. An imperial messenger was planned in 888 for a memorial offering made once during each reign, but the mission was carried out in 1017 at the enthronement of Emperor Ichijo. Records from about 1030 and 1031 describe the shrine with the honorific rank of Shoichi-i and twelve merit ranks, although that combination of titles has been questioned.
By the early twelfth century, the shrine’s position as the ichinomiya of Kozuke had been established. An ichinomiya was the highest-ranking shrine of a historical Japanese province, and Kozuke corresponded broadly to much of present-day Gunma. In 1100, a provincial official prayed at the shrine for rain, while the provincial governor composed the accompanying offering document. The episode indicates the shrine’s special relationship with the provincial government.
Warrior patronage and early modern rebuilding
During the medieval period, the shrine attracted the devotion of members of the warrior class, including Minamoto no Yoshiie and his father, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi. In the late Muromachi period, it received protection from the Uesugi, Later Hojo, and Takeda houses. The Takeda family used Hara Masatane, a hereditary senior retainer, as an intermediary, and assessments on households beyond Kozuke’s boundaries helped raise money for rebuilding.
Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the shrine received official patronage. Its principal buildings were constructed in 1635 under the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, and major repairs followed in 1698 under the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. During the Edo period, Nukihoko Shrine was the more usual name.
Modern status and continuing rites
In 1871, the Meiji government’s system of ranked Shinto shrines designated the shrine a National Shrine of the Middle Rank. It was renamed Nukisaki Shrine, following the form used in the Engishiki. After the Second World War, it became part of the special register of the Association of Shinto Shrines, the nationwide religious organization that includes the shrine. Its principal buildings and deer-divination tradition have received national, prefectural, or municipal cultural-property protection.
About 71 observances take place each year. Specialized rites include a water-target ceremony, ritual archery, the New Year bow-and-sword rite, tube-porridge divination, door-opening ceremonies, riverbank rites, deer divination, sake brewing, and weaving. The principal annual festival is held on March 15.
A twelve-year ritual cycle of relocation, known as shikinen sengu, also continues. A temporary sanctuary is built in the temporary-sanctuary precinct, and the deity is transferred there on December 12 of the Year of the Monkey. The return to the main sanctuary takes place on March 13 of the following Year of the Rooster. The three-month interval permits repairs and cleaning. The cycle existed before 1025, was once held at intervals of about 30 years and later seven years, and assumed its present form in 1590.
Twenty-four sections of Daidai Kagura, a formal Shinto performance of sacred dance and music offered to the kami, were transmitted from the hereditary ritual performers of Izumo Grand Shrine. They are performed on New Year’s Day and during the principal festival on March 15.
The shrine’s history is also preserved through ritual traditions and later cultural references. Its deer divination was selected as a nationally protected folk cultural practice in 1980 and designated a prefecturally protected important intangible folk cultural property in 1981. The medieval Shinto Shu discusses the former name and presents Nukihoko Daimyojin as a deity of immigrant origin, while explaining the transfer of provincial primacy from Akagi Daimyojin through a legend involving silk weaving. The shrine appears as the setting of Seicho Matsumoto’s short story The 139th Meridian and on the “Yu” card of Jomo Karuta.
Remains
The complex has a distinctive descending arrangement. The approach climbs stone steps to Yomogi Hill, passes through a large torii and the general gate, and then descends another flight of steps into Ayame Valley. The main sanctuary therefore stands below the level of the entrance. The principal group consists of the main sanctuary, worship hall, gate tower, and cloister, most of them surviving from the rebuilding campaign of 1635. Vividly colored lacquer applied during the major repairs of 1698 gives the buildings their richly colored appearance.
Principal shrine buildings
Main sanctuary
The main sanctuary is a two-story, single-roof building in the distinctive Nukisaki-zukuri form. It has three bays across the front and three along each side, with the sacred seat on the upper level. Its irimoya roof combines a central gabled form with hipped slopes, and the gable faces forward. A three-bay worship porch projects from the front, while layered cypress bark covers the roof. Two ridge-end tablets are associated with the building. A small thunder-deity window faces Mount Inafukumi. The sanctuary was built in 1635 and is a nationally designated important cultural property, a status granted in 1912.
Worship hall
Built around 1635, the worship hall is a three-by-three-bay, single-story structure with an irimoya roof covered in cypress bark. Its front has a kara-hafu, a curved decorative gable, and one ridge-end tablet is associated with the building. The hall is designated a nationally important cultural property, a status granted in 1976.
Gate tower and cloister
The gate tower was constructed in 1635 as a two-story, one-bay gate with a single entrance. Its irimoya roof is covered with copper sheeting, and the tower is a nationally designated important cultural property from 1976. The cloister was built during the same construction campaign and completes the principal architectural group.
Gates, torii, and surviving foundations
Imperial-Messenger Gate
The Imperial-Messenger Gate, also called the Closed Gate, is traditionally associated with the reign of Emperor Suzaku, between 930 and 946, when it was established for the arrival of an imperial messenger. It normally remains closed. The gate opens for the spring and winter door-opening rites and for the mounted-archery ceremony.
Imperial-Inscription Torii and lanterns
The Imperial-Inscription Torii takes its name from an inscription once attributed to Emperor Seiwa. Originally located in Tajima within Ichinomiya, it was moved behind the Imperial-Messenger Gate in 1635. Its present inscription panel bears the writing of Prince Arisugawa Takahito. Two copper lanterns beside the general gate date from 1865 and are designated cultural properties by Tomioka City.
Former Buddhist structures
Foundation stones mark the former sutra repository, whose construction date is unknown. The repository was destroyed during the Meiji-period suppression of Buddhism, along with its Buddhist scriptures and images. Behind the treasure hall, further foundation stones identify the site of a former three-storey pagoda. The pagoda and other Buddhist buildings burned in 1841 and were not rebuilt.
Subsidiary shrines and ritual precincts
Nukihoko Wakamikojinja Shrine
Nukihoko Wakamikojinja Shrine stands beside the left side of the main sanctuary and enshrines the child deity of the principal shrine’s kami. It was transferred from Wakamiya in Ichinomiya in 1905. A ridge-end tablet dates the present building to 1812.
Tsukiyomi and Hie shrines
Tsukiyomi Shrine stands beside the steps leading to the gate tower. Its building was the main shrine’s former worship hall before 1635 and was later used as the Ox-King Hall. It became Tsukiyomi Shrine during the Meiji period and absorbed four nearby shrines in 1908.
Hie Shrine stands beside the temporary-sanctuary precinct. Its building is traditionally identified as the shrine’s former main sanctuary before 1635. It absorbed three nearby shrines in 1909.
Ise shrines and the Twenty-Two Shrines
The Inner and Outer Ise shrines beside the temporary-sanctuary precinct enshrine Amaterasu and Toyouke respectively. Both are traditionally said to have been transferred in 1635 from the Ise estate area along Tengusawa Ridge. The Twenty-Two Shrines occupy one building nearby. Shrines once distributed across the estate were consolidated there during the 1635 construction.
External shrines and sacred mountains
Arafune Shrine
Arafune Shrine has a village sanctuary at Minaminomaki in Shimonita and an inner sanctuary on the summit of Mount Arafune. It enshrines Futsunushi and is linked with the tradition identifying the mountain with the Sasaoka Mountain described in the Shinto Shu.
Inafukumi Shrine
Inafukumi Shrine has a village sanctuary in Akihata, Kanra, and an inner sanctuary on Mount Inafukumi. The main sanctuary’s thunder-deity window faces the mountain, and parishioners of Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine take part in important rites there.
Kobune and Sakisaki shrines
Kobune Shrine, a former village shrine, serves as the main shrine’s purification place. It now stands in Tomioka, although it was formerly farther north, and it enshrines Futsunushi. An Edo-period local tradition identifies it with one of two boats used by Ichinomiya Daimyojin in a legendary arrival from India.
Sakisaki Shrine at Saginomiya in Annaka is regarded as the former sanctuary site or front shrine of Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine. It enshrines Futsunushi together with Okuninushi and Ukemochi, and parishioners of the main shrine participate in its important rites.
Trees and movable cultural remains
Tota Cedar grows behind the main sanctuary and is traditionally estimated to be about 1,200 years old. It is associated with Fujiwara Hidesato, who is said to have dedicated 36 cedars while praying for victory before campaigning against Taira no Masakado. East of the general gate stands the shrine’s Frog Tree, a tabu tree connected with a wartime and postwar devotional tradition. During the final period of the Pacific War, a fungus resembling a frog appeared on the tree. Because Futsunushi was regarded as a martial deity, soldiers and their families venerated it as the “victory frog”; it is now associated with prayers for safe travel.
A large Japanese stone oak, estimated to be about 1,000 years old, has multiple trunks and branches that have grown together. It reaches approximately 15 metres in height and has a root circumference of about 4 metres. The tree is a prefecturally designated natural monument. A ginkgo is also included among Tomioka’s selected notable trees.
The treasure hall holds a Tang-period white-bronze lunar palace mirror and two Kamakura-period bronze mirrors decorated with plum-and-sparrow and bamboo-and-tiger designs. The mirrors are nationally designated important cultural properties. The white-bronze mirror received that designation in 1912, and the pair of bronze mirrors in 1917.
