Awa Ichinomiya

 

Immediately adjacent to Dainichi-ji Temple is the Ichinomiya Shrine of Awa, the old name for Tokushima.

Dainichiji Temple  is now temple number 13 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, but prior to the Meiji era it was the shrine that was the 13th site of the pilgrimage. The Kannon statue was removed from the shrine and placed in Dainichiji.

In ancient times local people worshipped a huge, sacred stone at the site.

The shrine itself was founded in the mid-9th century, and at that time the Ichiniomiya for the province was Oasahiko Shrine across the Yoshino River.

This shrine became the Ichinomiya a couple of centuries later as Oasahiko Shrine was too far from the provincial capital and so considered inconvenient.

The three kami now enshrined here are Ogetsuhime, Amanoiwatowake, & Yakurahime.

Ogetsuhime is more commonly known as Ukemochi. Usually seen as the Goddess of food, she is sometimes a he. Different versions of the myths have her being killed by either Susanoo or Tsukuyomi, and from her corpse all the various foods of Japan sprang forth. She is also sometimes equated with Inari.

Amanoiwatowake is the name for several different kami, but one of them is the ancestral kami of the Imbe Clan, and so that is the most likely version here. The Imbe "colonized" the Awa region to grow hemp for the Imperial court.

Yakurahime is considered another name for Amaterasu.

Secondary shrines within the grounds include a Sarutahiko Shrine, a Tenjin Shrine, and Inari Shrine, an Okuninushi & Kotoshironushi Shrine, and a Munakata Shrine.

A Wakamiya Shrine enshrines several generations of the lords of nearby Ichinomniya Castle.

Due to the proximity to the castle, the shrine was completely destroyed by battles in the Warring States Period of the 16th century.

The honden is an Important Cultural Property. It was built in 1630.

The previous post in this series on day 8 of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the neighbouring Dainichiji Temple.

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Ichinomiya Shrine, Tokushima

Ichinomiya means "first-ranked shrine", and each province had their own, as well as Ninomiya (second ranked), Sannomiya (third ranked), etc. This is the Ichinomiya for what was Awa Province, now Tokushima.

It is also the site of what was the 13th temple on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage. There used to be a temple in the grounds called Ichinomiya-Ji, and pilgrims worshipped at both the shrine and the temple. The temple was destroyed in early Meiji but later rebuilt just across the road and renamed Dainichiji.

The main enshrined kami is Ogetsuhime, a goddess that approximates an "Earth Mother". According to the Kojiki, Susano asked her for some food and she produced it for him out of her various orifices. Feeling the food was therefore "impure" he killed her and scattered her body and from the various parts the foods of Japan, rice, millet, beans etc, grew. This is such an archetypal myth that it is not surprising that similar myths exist in other parts of Japan, though with different names. What is most interesting is that Ogetsuhime is the ancient "divine" name for Awa.

The second enshrined deity is Amenoiwatowake, one of the kami from Takamagahara, the "High Plain of Heaven" who escorted Ninigi in his descent to Japan. She is enshrined at Kashihara, the "palace" of Jimmu in Yamato.

What these 2 kami suggest to me is that as the Yamato fought their way east from Kyushu they appropiaited the kami of the peoples they conquered and incorporated these kami into their own mythology to justify their divine right to rule.

There are many secondary shrines within the grounds, but no signboard so cannot say which other kami are enshrined here.