Main Kami             Hondawake no Mikoto (15th Tennō, known as Hachiman)

Additional Kami    Lord Tōdō Takamichi (founder of Hisai)

                               and 10 other Kami

 

History of the Shrine

  After Lord Tōdō Takamichi (1644-1697) received the order to open a new domain to support that of Tsu, he deceided to name it Hisai – for which he used the Japanese reading of the second and fourth characters of the Sino-Japanese expression eikyū chinkyo, which means “peaceful residence for good and ever“. In 1670, the Kami Hachiman was worshipped as a guardian deity in the northeast of the castle - in the current location - and the shrine took the name of Hisai Hachimangū.

  Until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the shrine was part of a Buddhist complex called Chōkaiji, though it was abolished with the separation of Buddhism and Shintō. Following this many shrines were amalgamated, so another 23 Kami were enshrined alongside Hachiman in 1908, including Lord Tōdō Takamichi and Kagutsuchi no Mikoto (Kami of fire). Further, the name of the shrine was changed to Nobeno Jinja. Nobeno was the old name of this area, before it became Hisai.

Under the protection of the Kami Hachiman, Hisai is said to have been a safe and calm place since its founding. Therefore, the shrine got its original name back in 2020 with the 350th anniversary of its and Hisais founding.