is a Shinto shrine in the town of Ichinomiya

Ichinomiya, Chiba

is a town located in Chōsei District, Chiba, Japan. As of 2010, the town had an estimated population of 12,079and a density of 525 persons per km². The total area was 23.02 km².-Geography:...

 in Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...

, 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...

. It is the ichinomiya of former Kazusa Province

Kazusa Province

was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. It lies on in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula , whose name takes its first kanji from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was or .Kazusa is classified as one of the...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on September 13, and features kagura

Kagura

- Fictional characters :*Kagura Tsuchimiya, the protagonist of Ga-rei*Kagura, an InuYasha character*Kagura Sohma , a Fruits Basket character*Kagura, an Azumanga Daioh character*Ten'nōzu Kagura, a Speed Grapher character...

performances, which are listed as an Intangible Cultural Property of Chiba Prefecture

Enshrined kami

The main kami of Tamasaki Jinja are the male , who is identified with Ugayafukiaezu-no-Mikoto

Ugayafukiaezu

, commonly shortened to Ugayafukiaezu, is a Japanese deity and in Japanese mythology, he is the father of Japan's first emperor, Emperor Jimmu...

  and the female ; the parents of Emperor Jimmu

Emperor Jimmu

was the first Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He is also known as Kamuyamato Iwarebiko and personally as Wakamikenu no Mikoto or Sano no Mikoto....

.

History

The origins of Tamasaki Jinja are unknown. The shrine is located in an area of the Bōsō Peninsula

Boso Peninsula

thumb|Locationthumb|Landsat image with high-resolution data from Space Shuttle is a peninsula in Chiba prefecture on Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean....

 with a favorable climate, which has been settled since at least the Jōmon period

Jomon period

The is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14,000 BC to 300 BC.The term jōmon means "cord-patterned" in Japanese. This refers to the pottery style characteristic of the Jōmon culture, and which has markings made using sticks with cords wrapped around them...

. Shell middens and burial mounds

Kofun

Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Japan, constructed between the early 3rd century and early 7th century. They gave their name to the Kofun period . Many of the Kofun have a distinctive keyhole-shaped mound , unique to ancient Japan...

 are common in the area. The shrine is mentioned as the ichinomiya of Kazusa Province 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 from 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...

. However, repeated fires and other disasters over the centuries have destroyed all of the old shrine records and buildings. The shrine was burned down in 1562 during a battle involving the Satomi clan

Satomi clan

The Satomi clan was a clan of samurai which claimed descent from Nitta Yoshishige , whose son Yoshitoshi took 'Satomi' as his surname. The Satomi moved from Kōzuke province to Awa province in the mid-15th century, and remained there into the Edo Period. During the Sengoku period, the Satomi were...

 and was rebuilt by the Satomi in 1587. Additional structures were donated by 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 1591 and the shrine reconstructed in 1678. During the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 era of 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...

, the shrine was rated as a .

Cultural Properties

• Bronze Mirror, Kamakura period
  Kamakura period
  The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
  
  , National Important Cultural Property
  Important Cultural Properties of Japan
  The term is often shortened into just are items officially already classified as Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and judged to be of particular importance to the Japanese people....
  
  

See also

• List of Shinto shrines
• Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines
  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...