Chiba Shrine
Chiba Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chūō-ku, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. Originally a Buddhist temple dedicated to the deity Myōken, the patron of the Chiba clan, it was converted into a Shinto shrine dedicated to Ame-no-Minakanushi during the Meiji period.
Due to its historical status as one of the principal centers of Myōken worship in Chiba Prefecture associated with the Chiba clan, the shrine is also popularly known as Chiba Dai-Myōken, Myōken Hongū, or simply as Myōken-sama.
Deities
The shrine's main deity is the god Ame-no-Minakanushi under the name 'Hokushin Myōken Sonjō-Ō'.The shrine's auxiliary deities are:
- Futsunushi
- Yamato Takeru
Background
The cult of Myōken is thought to have developed in China during the Tang period, when Taoist Big Dipper and pole star worship was adopted into Buddhism. It was then introduced into Japan somewhere during the 7th century by immigrants from Goguryeo and Baekje. Myōken worship flourished in the eastern half of the country - where the toraijin were resettled during the reign of Emperor Tenji - and was quite prevalent among many clans based in this area such as the Chiba and the Sōma clans. Temples and shrines to Myōken were especially numerous in former Chiba territories.
The relationship between Myōken and the Chiba clan is traditionally traced back to the clan's ancestor, Taira no Yoshifumi, the uncle of Taira no Masakado. Legend states that when Yoshifumi and his nephew was about to lose a battle against Yoshifumi's elder brother Kunika at the Someya River in Kōzuke Province, they were rescued by Myōken, the deity of nearby Sokusai-ji. After reaching safety, Yoshifumi went to this temple to express his gratitude and took one of the seven statues of Myōken enshrined there with him. This image was passed down to his descendants, who venerated Myōken as their patron deity.
When the Meiji government enforced the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in the late 19th century, many shrines that venerated Buddhist figures or deities of mixed heritage either changed or associated their deities to ones found in classical Japanese mythology as written in texts such as the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Many places of worship dedicated to Myōken thus began to identify their deity as Ame-no-Minakanushi, a primordial deity who came to be identified with the pole star and the Big Dipper.
History
According to tradition, the Buddhist temple Hokutosan Kongōju-ji was founded in the thirteenth day of the ninth month of the year 1000 by the monk Kakusan, a son of Taira no Tadatsune, who then became its first abbot. The temple was built at the command of Emperor Ichijō in thanksgiving for his recovery from an eye disease.In 1126, Tadatsune's great-great-grandson Taira no Tsuneshige transferred his clan's power base from Ōjī Castle in Kazusa Province to a new castle located about a kilometer south of Kongōju-ji, situated in a natural plateau known as Mount Inohana. During the transfer, the clan shrine to Myōken which enshrined the image supposedly brought by Yoshifumi from Sokusai-ji situated within the castle precincts was merged into the temple complex. Myōken Taisai, the temple's annual festival, was first held in 1127, the year after the clan - now calling itself 'Chiba' - moved to Inohana Castle, and has continued uninterrupted for nearly nine centuries since. As the Chiba's seat of power, the area surrounding the castle and the temple, Chiba Manor, began to prosper during this period.
During the Genpei War, the Chiba clan, headed by Tsuneshige's son Tsunetane, chose to side with Minamoto no Yoritomo against Taira no Kiyomori. Yoritomo himself is said to have visited the temple on his way to Kamakura in 1180. After Kiyomori's defeat, the clan was rewarded large domains throughout Japan. Myōken's cult spread to these areas as a result.
By the Muromachi period, a series of external and internal conflicts had severely weakened the Chiba. In 1455, Makuwari Yasutane overthrew the clan's main branch, then led by his nephew Tanenao, and assumed leadership, only to be defeated and killed under the orders of shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Inohana Castle was abandoned in the aftermath of this conflict, with the Chiba moving this time to another castle located in what is now the city of Sakura. The clan head's coming-of-age ceremony, however, was still held at Kongōju-ji, showing the continued esteem with which the temple was held.
File:Chiba-jinja 007.jpg|thumb|280x280px|left|The shrine's former haiden, now an auxiliary shrine dedicated to TenjinIn 1591, Kongōju-ji received donations of land from Tokugawa Ieyasu, who also conferred to it the special privilege of direct audience with the shōgun. The temple subsequently became known as 'Myōken-ji' during the Edo period.
In 1869, as a result of the edicts that called for the separation of Buddhism and Shinto, the temple - which featured a combination of both - was turned into a purely Shinto institution and renamed "Chiba Shrine", with its deity Myōken reidentified as Ame-no-Minakanushi.
In 1874, Chiba Shrine was raised to the rank of prefectural shrine or kensha. In the same year, the shrine caught fire and burned to the ground. It was immediately rebuilt, but was again destroyed by fire in 1904. Reconstruction of the ruined edifices was finished ten years later, in 1914.
The shrine was destroyed a third time during the bombing of Chiba in 6-7 July, 1945 in the closing stages of World War II. It was rebuilt after the war and was completed in 1954.
In 1990, the entire Chiba Shrine complex was renovated on a grand scale. The Sonjōden, the shrine compound's main gate, was completed in 1998.
Structures
- Main shrine building
- Chiba Tenjin
- Sonjōden '
- Chōzuya'''''
Auxiliary shrines
- Innai Katori Shrine
- Chiba
Tenjin - Uba Shrine
- Hoshi Shrine
- Ishi Shrine
- Inari Shrine
- Kotohira Shrine
- Nishinomiya Shrine
- Hachiman Shrine
- Hie Shrine
- Mitsumine Shrine
- Shinmei Shrine
- Ontake Shrine
- Itsukushima Shrine
- Mizu-no-Miya
Festivals
- '''Myōken Taisai '''