Setagaya Hachimangu

The throne of Setagaya Hachimangu Shrine was established about 900 years ago, in the fifth year of Kanji (1091) of the 73rd Horikawa Tenno, three years after Minamoto Yoshiie, who was appointed as the shogun of Mutsu Province (Oshu) at that time, attacked and pacified the Kiyohara family at the Kanazawa fence after many hardships. On his way back from the war zone, Yoshiie encountered heavy rain in the village of Setagaya, and he could not proceed and stayed for more than ten days to wait for the weather to improve. It is said that the Yoshike, who originally had a deep sense of reverence, deeply thanked the gods of Hachiman Ōkami, whom they worshipped as a clan god (guardian deity) on a daily basis, and invited the spirits of the Usa Hachiman Shrine in Bizen Province (Oita Prefecture) to the land of Setagaya to hold a grand solicitation and celebration festival, and taught the villagers to worship this deity as the guardian deity of their hometown. It is also famous for having soldiers take a congratulatory sumo wrestling match at that time, and it is still passed down as a votive sumo wrestling to this day. According to the building tag that remains in the company, "Our company Hachimangu Shrine was built on August 20th in the 15th year of the Astronomical Period, and on December 20th of December, the shrine was renovated and built by Kira Yorisada and Yoriyasu, who was the lord of Setagaya Castle during the reign of the 15th Emperor Go-Nara, and at this time, it is said that he donated a sword (2 shaku 3 inches) of Bizen Unji, which still remains as a company treasure today. In this way, our company Hachiman-sama was a place of prayer for the Kira family, and the Shinto priesthood was held by the Oba clan, a branch of the Oba family, an old vassal family at that time, but in the eighteenth year of Tensho (1590), when Toyotomi Hideyoshi conquered the Kanto region, the Kira clan perished along with the Hojo clan of Odawara. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who entered Edo Castle in the 19th year of Tensho (1591) the following year, was also from the Genji clan, and revered the god Hachiman, and donated eleven stones to the company as a company territory. Since then, it has become customary for the successive shoguns of the Tokugawa family to donate 11 stones of the company's territory as a red seal land. After the Meiji Restoration, Hachiman-sama became the Gosha Usa Shrine as the general guardian of Setagaya in Meiji 5, and the land of the former Setagaya Village and Hanegi were designated as the clan area, but after the end of the war, the shrine was no longer under state control, so the status of the shrine was abolished, and the name of the shrine was also restored to the original Setagaya Hachimangu Shrine by literature such as red seal letters. The shrine was renovated in May of Showa 39, and it has become the current majestic shrine hall, and is deeply worshipped by many people as the god of the guardianship of Setagaya.