Hie Shrine

Hie Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, stands on the heights of Hoshigaoka near the Prime Minister's residence and the National Diet. The main deity is Oyamakui no Kami, recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) as a child of Otoshigami and Amechikarumitsu-hime and the mountain deity of Mount Hiei in Omi, enshrined at Hiyoshi Taisha in Shiga. Associated deities include Kunitokotachi no Kami, Izanami no Kami and Tarashinakatsuhiko no Mikoto (Emperor Chuai). The shrine's sacred messenger is the monkey, and the koma-shin monkey statues in the precincts are well known. Shrine tradition places the founding in 1478, when Ota Dokan invited Sanno from Hiyoshi Taisha during the construction of Edo Castle. After Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo in 1590, the shrine became the tutelary of the Tokugawa family, and it was moved to the present Nagatacho site after the 1657 Meireki fire. The June Sanno Festival is one of the three great festivals of Edo.