The is a Shinto shrine in the town of Mori

Mori, Shizuoka

is a town located in Shūchi District, Shizuoka, Japan. As of February 2010, the town had an estimated population of 19,650 and a density of 147 persons per km². The total area was 133.84 km².-Geography:...

 in Shūchi District

Shuchi District, Shizuoka

Shūchi is a district located in Shizuoka, Japan.As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 26,651 and a density of 69.04 persons per km². The total area is 386.01 km².-Merger:...

 Shizuoka Prefecture

Shizuoka Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Oguni Jinja (also called Okuni Jinja) is one of two shrines claiming to hold the title of ichinomiya of former Tōtōmi Province

Totomi Province

was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today western Shizuoka Prefecture. Tōtōmi bordered on Mikawa, Suruga and Shinano Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was .-History:...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on April 18, during which time a set of twelve dances are performed. This performance is said to date to the early Heian period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

 and is a National Intangible Cultural Property.

Enshrined kami

The primary kami

Kami

is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...

of Oguni Jinja is the .
There are numerous small subsidiary shrines to various kami within the shrine grounds.

History

The date of Oguni Shrine’s foundation is unknown. Shrine tradition gives a date of February 18, 555 (during the reign of Emperor Kinmei as the date when a shrine was first constructed on the 511-meter Mount Hongū, which now forms part of the shrine’s grounds.

The shrine appears in historical records in an entry within the Shoku Nihon Kōki

Shoku Nihon Koki

is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 869, it is the fourth volume in the Six National Histories. It covers the years 833-850.-Background:...

dated June 14, 884 and it is mentioned again in the Engishiki

Engishiki

-History:In 905 Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of a new set of laws. Fujiwara no Tokihira began the task, but work stalled when he died four years later in 909. His brother Fujiwara no Tadahira continued the work in 912 eventually completing it in 927...

records.

It has been styled as the ichinomiya of Tōtōmi Province since at least 1235, and continued to be referred to as the “Ichinomiya” until the end of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

. Takeda Shingen

Takeda Shingen

, of Kai Province, was a preeminent daimyo in feudal Japan with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period.-Name:Shingen was called "Tarō" or "Katsuchiyo" during his childhood...

 worshipped at the shrine in 1572, and Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

 in 1575. Ieyasu later contributed to the rebuilding of the Honden

Honden

The , is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined kami, usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a statue. The building is normally in the rear of the shrine and closed to the general public. In front of its usually stands the haiden, or...

, and subsequent generations of Tokugawa Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 continued to support the shrine.

After the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, it was proclaimed a prefectural shrine (県社) in 1873, and was granted the rank of Kokuhei Shōsha

Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines

The The The (sometimes called simply , was an organizational aspect of the establishment of Japanese State Shinto. This system classified Shinto shrines as either official government shrines or "other" shrines...

 under State Shinto

State Shinto

has been called the state religion of the Empire of Japan, although it did not exist as a single institution and no "Shintō" was ever declared a state religion...

in 1875.