Tsushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is the head shrine of a nation-wide shrine network of shrines dedicated to the Tsushima Cult, Centered primarily in the Tōkai region, this network has approximately 3,000 shrines, and is the tenth-largest network in the country. The main kami of this faith are Gion, the god of pestilences, and Susanoo, two deities which have been conflated together. For this reason, like other shrines of the network it is also called Tsushima Gozutennō-sha.
History
Shrine legend, unsupported by any historical documentation, claims that the shrine was founded in Tsushima by the semi-legendary Emperor Kōrei to worship Gozutennō's aramitama, which remained at Izumo-taisha, and its nigemitama which came to Japan from the Korean peninsula after stopping in Tsushima Island, between Korea and Japan. The shrine relocated to its current location in Owari Province in 540 AD. This may explain the relationship between the two Tsushimas suggested by the common name. The shrine appears in historical records from the time of Emperor Saga, during whose rank it was awarded the status of First Court Rank, indicating that it was of considerable importance and antiquity by that time. It was awarded the title of Tennō-sha by Emperor Ichijō ; however, for unknown reasons it is not mentioned at all in the Engishiki records completed in 927 AD, nor in the official records of the province. In the Sengoku period, the Oda clan built Shobata Castle in the vicinity of the shrine, and the family crest of the Oda clan is the same emblem as that used by the Tsushima Shrine, indicating a close connection. The shrine was subsequently repaired by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and it received official status and patronage by the Owari Tokugawa clan of Owari Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate in the Edo period. With the establishment of State Shinto in the Meiji period, Tsushima Shine was initially ranked as a prefectural shrine in Modern system of ranked Shinto shrines, and its status was increased to that of a Kokuhei Shōsha, or National Shrine, 3rd rank, in 1926. In 1920, the Honden of the shrine, which was built in 1605 under the patronage of Matsudaira Tadayoshi was designated an Important Cultural Property. The building is built in the owari-zukuristyle, of which few extant examples remain. The Rōmon gate, built in 1591, was also designated an Important Cultural Property in 1954. The shrine holds a festival called Tsushima Matsuri in the sixth month of the lunar calendar during which boats called danjiri are floated on the Tennō River, and reeds are released into the water.
