Kanda Myojin Shrine

Kanda Myojin (officially Kanda Shrine), located in Sotokanda, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, is one of the chief tutelary shrines of old Edo. Three deities are enshrined: Onamuchi-no-Mikoto (identified with Okuninushi), recorded in the Kojiki as the kami who completed the building of the Central Land of Reed Plains; Sukunabikona-no-Mikoto, who according to the Kojiki assisted Onamuchi in this work; and Taira no Masakado, the mid-Heian warrior who declared himself shinno during the Johei-Tengyo Disturbance (935-940) and whose grave-mound stands at Otemachi. According to shrine tradition, the deity Onamuchi was enshrined at Shibasaki in 730, and Masakado was added in 1309. In 1616 the Tokugawa shogunate relocated the shrine to its current site to serve as Edo's chief shrine. The Kanda Festival held in mid-May is counted among the three great festivals of Edo.