Saturday, November 26, 2011

Oasahiko Shrine


A more than 15 meters tall torii marks the beginning of the 800 meter long approach road to Oasahiko Shrine. The road itself is lined with dozens of stone lanterns.
 

The exact date of the shrines founding is unkown, but it is listed in the Engishiki of the early tenth century, and the shrine grew in importance during the next millenium.


In the middle of the main shrines compound is a huge Camphor tree believed to be over 1,000 years old.
 

The main kami enshrined here are Oasahiko no Okami and Sarutahiko. Oasahiko is the enshrined name of Ame no Tomi, an ancestor of the Imbe clan who was sent by the mythical Emperor Jimmu to find land suitable for hemp cultivation.


Hemp was a very important plant in Japan until Shogun Macarthur outlawed it during the occupation.


Hemp is not mentioned at all at the shrine, and in fact the importance of hemp in Japan has been almost completely removed from history.

Posted by Ojisanjake at 2:02 PM
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4 comments:

  1. zoomingjapanNovember 27, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    Woah! All I saw in the map was "ドイツ官" ... and so I thought it must be close to Bando and I was right!
    Haven't been there in a while.
    I'm pretty sure I've been to that shrine.
    Is it part of the 88 Shikoku pilgrimage?

    ReplyDelete
  2. LiliNovember 27, 2011 at 7:13 PM

    Another very nice shrine
    Thanks for letting us know all these wonderful places

    ReplyDelete
  3. John DougillNovember 30, 2011 at 6:04 PM

    That komainu is very distinctive... haven't seen one quite like that before, so i'm wondering if there are others in the area in the same style...

    ReplyDelete
  4. OjisanjakeDecember 2, 2011 at 10:55 PM

    Hi John
    there are a lot of quite different styles ive come across around shikoku.... one of the things i look for :)

    ReplyDelete

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