Imizu Jinja


Imizu Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in the city of Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. It one of several shrines claiming the title of ichinomiya of former Etchū Province. The main kami enshrined is Ninigi. The shrine's main festival is held annually on April 23.

History

The original construction of this shrine is unknown, but it pre-dates the Nara period and was part of a cult entered on the worship of Mount Futagami, a 274-meter mountain in western Toyama Prefecture. The Nara period monk Gyōki is said to have contracted a Buddhist temple associated with the shrine in 717 AD; however, the first mention of the shrine in historical records is in an entry in the 768 AD Shoku Nihongi, and in the 795 AD Nihon Kōki. By the 859 AD Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, it had been accorded 3rd Court Rank. The shrine is also mentioned in a poem in the Man'yōshū by Otomo no Yakamochi dated 748 AD.
The shrine burned down in the Sengoku period and was rebuilt by the Maeda clan during the Edo period. Under the pre-World War II Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines, the shrine was classified as a National Shrine of the Second Rank, and in 1875 it was relocated to the site of Takaoka Castle in central Takaoka city. It burned down in 1900 and was rebuilt in 1902 in the Shinmei-zukuri style of shrine architecture popular at the time.