Hiwasa Hachiman Shrine

Hiwasa Hachiman Shrine in Minami Town, Kaifu District, Tokushima, stands on a rise overlooking Hiwasa fishing port within the Muroto-Anan Coast Quasi-National Park. The nearby Ohama beach is a designated National Natural Monument as a sea turtle nesting site. The main deities are the Hachiman triad descending from Usa: Emperor Ojin, Empress Jingu and Hime-gami. Kojiki (712 CE) records Emperor Ojin in the Empress Jingu narrative tied to the conquest of Silla; the position of the shrine on the Pacific coast made it a guardian of maritime traffic. Tradition records the transfer of the deity from Usa Jingu in 1559. Under the Edo-period Hachisuka domain it received patronage as the tutelary of Hiwasa harbor. It was registered as a village shrine in the Meiji period. The October autumn festival, in which eight Choosa drum carts are carried into the sea in the "running" rite, is a designated Tokushima prefectural intangible folk cultural property.