Kashima Miko Shrine

Kashima Miko Shrine (鹿島御児神社) is a Shinto shrine atop Mount Hiyori (about 60 m) in Hiyorigaoka, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, listed in the Engishiki Jinmyocho (927 CE) for Mutsu Province, Oshika District. The principal kami are Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto and Kashima-Amatarashiwake-no-Mikoto, the latter the child-deity of Takemikazuchi at the head shrine of Kashima Jingu in Ibaraki, forming a parallel structure with the Kashima Miko Shrine of Minamisoma in Fukushima as branches of the Kashima cult in former Mutsu. The shrine's site on Mount Hiyori commands the Ishinomaki coast and the mouth of the Kitakami River, a representative landscape of the Mutsu coast also visited by Matsuo Basho in the Oku no Hosomichi. The shrine sits above the run-up of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami and was spared damage.