Usa Jingū
Usa-jingū (宇佐神宮), also known as Usa Hachiman-gū (宇佐八幡宮), is a Japanese Shinto shrine in the city of Usa in Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu.[1]
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Usa_Shrine_%28Nanch%C5%ABr%C5%8Dmon%29.jpg/220px-Usa_Shrine_%28Nanch%C5%ABr%C5%8Dmon%29.jpg)
History
changeThe shrine was founded in the Wadō era (708-714).[2]
A Buddhist temple called Miroku-ji was built next to it in 779, making it what is believed to be the first shrine-temple (jingū-ji) ever.[3] The shrine-temple complex, called Usa Hachimangu-ji (宇佐八幡宮寺), lasted until 1868.
Usa first appears in the chronicles of Imperial history during the reign of Empress Shōtoku.[4]
Usa jingū was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) for the old Buzen Province. It serves today as one of the ichinomiya of Oita and Fukuoka Prefectures. [5]
From 1871 through 1946, Usa was officially listed among the first rank of government supported shrines.[6]
Branch shrines
changeUsa is today the center of over 40,000 branch Hachiman shrines.[7] In Shinto belief, the many Hachiman shrines have extended the reach of the kami at Usa.[8]
References
change- ↑ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Usa Hachiman-gū" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 1017.
- ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962). Studies in Shinto and Shrines, p. 195.
- ↑ Shively, Donald H. (1993). Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 2, pp. 524–530.
- ↑ Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 78-81; Brown, Delmer M. (1993). The Cambridge History of Japan, p. 411 n144 citing Ross Bender, "The Hachiman Cult and the Dōkyō Incident" in Monumenta Nipponica. 24 (Summer 1979): 124.
- ↑ "Nationwide List of Ichinomiya," p. 3. Archived 2013-05-17 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2011-08-09
- ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, pp. 124-126; other similarly honored Hachiman shrines were Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu of Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture and Hakozaki-gū of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture
- ↑ Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), Usa Jinju Shrine[permanent dead link]
- ↑ Hardacre, Helen. (1989). Shinto and the State, 1868-1988, p. 12.
Other websites
changeMedia related to Usa Shrine at Wikimedia Commons
- Shrine image, 180° panorama Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine