Motohama Otoshi Shrine

 

Down below the Otoshi Shrine near Hamada Port is a small Benten-Sha and a memorial to sailors and fishermen lots at sea...

The Otoshi shrine was founded in the first half of the 8th century by "inviting" the kami of Izawa and Otoshi shrine in Mie, which suggests that figures in the provincial government offices nearby were responsible.

Otoshi is a common kami in this area as a son of Susano connected with farming and with links to Korean immigrants. The Otoshi here though, uses a different kanji, and the Izawa shrine is very closely connected to Ise, so it seems to be a different kami than the Susano connected one. Another clue is that a site I use to research Engi Shiki shrines usually has links to descriptions of all the major kami, but for the Otoshi of this shrine, no link....

The shrine received further donations from visiting dignitaries from Kyoto, and was listed in the Engi Shiki, so was obviously an important shrine in the past, but now is unmanned and somewhat dilapidated.

The zuijin in the gate were kind of cool, as were the relief carvings....

There are some secondary shrines in the grounds, the biggest being a Sumiyoshi Shrine, then there is an Inari shrine and an Ebisu shrine....

From the shrine there are nice views over the fishing port...

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku Kannon and Iwami Kannon pilgrimages was on two of the pilgrimage temples in the neighbourhood.

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