Enoshima Shrine

Enoshima Shrine (江島神社) is a Shinto shrine on the tidal island of Enoshima in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, one of the three great Benzaiten centres of Japan together with Itsukushima and Chikubu-shima. The shrine comprises three sub-shrines — Hetsumiya, Nakatsumiya, and Okutsumiya — enshrining respectively Tagitsu-hime, Ichikishima-hime, and Tagiri-hime, the Munakata Three Goddesses recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as born from the oath-making between Amaterasu and Susanoo. According to shrine tradition, the iwaya cave was first consecrated under Emperor Kinmei in 552 CE, and Minamoto no Sanetomo venerated the shrine in 1206, after which it served as a prayer shrine of the Kamakura shogunate. From the medieval period the goddesses were identified with Benzaiten, and the eight-armed and Myoon Benzaiten images are Important Cultural Properties.