Chiroku Shrine

Chiroku Shrine

In the Fukuoka area there are quite a few Chiroku (or sometimes Jiroku) shrines. This one is in Ijiri to the south of Hakata and downtown Fukuoka.

They all enshrine the same male-female pair of kami, Takehaniyasuhiko, the male, and Haniyasuhime, the female, and were both created by Izanagi at the same time he created Susano, Amaterasu, etc while purifying himself after his journey to the underworld to visit the deceased Izanami.

The pair of kami are known as the kami of soil, and according to the myth they were created from Izanagi's feces. As the content of Japanese toilets have traditionally been used as fertilizer for farming, its not surprising that these two kami are considered by some to be the kami of the toilet.

There was no signboard at the shrine so its history remains a mystery. All the shimenawa were new in preparation for the impending new year.