Kohaku Shrine: Guardian Shrine of Former Sasu Village in Japan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Sanctuary
On this page4 sections
History
Kohaku Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Chofu, Japan, founded in February 588 by enshrining Ōtoshi Mioya no Kami, a kami, or Shinto deity. Standing in Sasu near Jindaiji, it served as the guardian shrine of the former Sasu village and is regarded as a possible identification of the Kohaku Shrine listed for Tama District in Musashi Province in the Engishiki, a tenth-century compilation of court regulations, ritual procedures, and officially recognized shrines.
Foundation and connection with Jindaiji
Kohaku Shrine’s traditional name is associated with the former name of Sasu village, Koma-no-sato. Mankō Shōnin’s grandparents lived there: his grandmother Tora is considered to have been an immigrant from the Korean Peninsula, while his grandfather Ukon served as village headman. Mankō’s father, Fukuman, is also described as an immigrant, and his mother was the daughter of Ukon and Tora.
Mankō Shōnin, a Buddhist monk associated with the foundation of Jindaiji, established that temple in 732. Because his grandparents were enshrined at Kohaku Shrine, the shrine became Jindaiji’s guardian shrine. Mankō later founded Gionji in 750, and that temple became Kohaku Shrine’s bettō, a Buddhist administrator responsible for supervising the rites of an associated shrine. Gionji continued this role until the Edo period, the period of Tokugawa shogunate rule from 1603 to 1868. Mankō’s parents were enshrined at Gionji.
Institutional changes
The shrine formerly held the rank of gōsha, a village-level shrine rank. In 1911, several shrines established by Nukui Bungo were merged with Kohaku Shrine. In 1942, those shrines were re-enshrined at their original locations, altering the institutional arrangement while preserving their separate places of worship.
Remains
Kohaku Shrine stands in Sasu, near Jindaiji, within the area of the former Sasu village settlement. Its main hall is a one-bay shrine building in nagare-zukuri, a form with a roof projecting forward to shelter the entrance. The hall was constructed in the mise-dana style, in which the shrine building is raised above a shelf-like platform. These features define the surviving architectural form of the shrine and reflect its function as a place dedicated to Ōtoshi Mioya no Kami.
