Kotohira Shrine

Kotohira-gu Shrine is a shrine located on Mount Zozu in Kotohira Town, Kagawa Prefecture.

The enshrined deities of the Main Sanctuary are Ōmononushi no Kami and Emperor Sutoku. Since ancient times, it has been worshipped as a deity of agriculture, industry, medicine, and maritime safety. Within the shrine grounds, Shinto priests and shrine maidens who serve the gods conduct a variety of festivals and rituals throughout the year.

Famous features include the gold-laced main sanctuary offering box, the “Yellow Good Luck Charm,” the “O-Tōjin-sama” of the annual festival, the sliding-door paintings by Maruyama Ōkyo in the shoin room (an Important Cultural Property), kemari (a prefectural intangible folk cultural asset), the 785 stone steps from the shrine town to the Main Sanctuary, and “Konpira dogs.”

Deep in the mountain at the 1,368th step is Ichikishimahime Shrine (the Inner Shrine), which enshrines Ikutsuhiko-no-Mikoto, the founder of Konpira Hombyō.

▶ History

The Main Sanctuary of Kotohira-gu Shrine, affectionately known as “Konpira-san,” is situated on the slope of Kotohira Mountain, also known as Mount Zozu.

The seven-volume Tamamoshū, edited by Konishi Kako and published in Enpō 5 (1677), states in “San’yō Meisho Bussan Ki, Part 2” that “it is said that this mountain has been enshrined here for three thousand years.” The Konpira Daigongen Meisho Zue, published during the Bunka era (1804–1818), says, “The fact that Konpira Daigongen has been enshrined on this mountain dates from the age of the gods, and it is beyond reckoning whether it has been hundreds of thousands or millions of years.”

Originally, Ōmononushi no Kami was enshrined here, and in ancient times it was called Kotohira Shrine.

In the medieval period, under the influence of the honji suijaku theory, it was renamed Konpira Daigongen, and in Man’en 1 (1165), Emperor Sutoku was enshrined as a co-deity in the same sanctuary.

Ōmononushi no Kami is the nigimitama of Ōkuninushi no Kami, the son of Takeminakata no Kami, younger brother of Amaterasu Ōmikami and child of Takemikazuchi no Kami, and is widely revered throughout Japan as a deity with broad divine virtues, including agriculture, industry, medicine, and maritime protection.

According to “Kotohira Mountain in the Age of the Gods” (Korin Kōki, Kotohira-gu Shrine Office Publications Section, 1941), there is a legend that “in the distant age of the gods, the area around Kotohira was a coastline, and the present site of Kotohira was a fine harbor. Therefore, when Ōmononushi Ōkami (Ōkuninushi no Kami) undertook the governance and development of the land, he made use of this favorable terrain and constructed a temporary palace on the mountain. Kotohira-gu Shrine was established by enshrining the divine spirit at the site of that temporary palace.”

In other words, at that time Mount Kotohira was said to be an island floating in the Seto Inland Sea, and Ōmononushi no Kami built a temporary palace there.

It is said that the deity was enshrined at the site of that palace. Even today, throughout the dense forests of Mount Kotohira, there are places believed to be ancient ruins, and traces of the great deeds of Ōmononushi no Kami can be felt throughout the shrine grounds.

For this reason as well, the shrine is still widely cherished as the “god of the sea.”

Emperor Sutoku (1119–1164) was the 75th emperor of Japan, reigning from Hōan 4 to Eiji 1 (1123–1141). His personal name was Akihito.

After the Hōgen Disturbance in Hōgen 1 (1156), he revered Konpira Daigongen in Sanuki Province (present-day Kagawa Prefecture) and is said to have stayed in seclusion at “Korōsho” within the shrine grounds. It is also said that he used “Goshonoo” in the area as a temporary palace.

The following year, Man’en 1 (1165), after Emperor Sutoku passed away in Sanuki Province, Konpira Daigongen welcomed his divine spirit to Mount Zozu (= Mount Kotohira) and enshrined him as “Emperor Sutoku” in the main sanctuary’s co-shrine.

Since Emperor Sutoku’s spirit was enshrined, the divine authority of Konpira Daigongen shone even more brilliantly than before.

In the early modern period, the divine power of “Konpira-san” became increasingly renowned. In the 12th month of Hōreki 3 (1753), during the reign of Emperor Momozono in the mid-Edo period, it was decreed that Konpira Daigongen would be a shrine of imperial prayer. In the 5th month of Hōreki 10 (1760), the shrine received an imperial rescript designating it as the nation’s foremost shrine. Until the early Meiji period (1868), offerings of “onademono” from the Imperial Court were bestowed on the chief priest twice a year, in spring and autumn, in prayer for the eternal prosperity of the imperial line.

In this way, Konpira Daigongen received reverence from successive imperial reigns and was widely worshipped by everyone from feudal lords and military leaders to common people. As nationwide maritime routes developed, it attracted the devotion of seafarers, was widely distributed as a tutelary deity across Japan, and Konpira confraternities arose in many places, further increasing its divine prestige.

In Meiji 1 (1868), the combination of Shinto and Buddhism was abolished, and Konpira Daigongen returned to its original form as Kotohira Shrine. In July of that year, it was granted the title “gu” and renamed Kotohira-gu Shrine, which it remains to this day.