Kotohira-gu Shrine

Kotohira-gu, located in Kotohira Town, Nakatado District, Kagawa Prefecture, is the head shrine of all Kotohira and Konpira shrines nationwide. The principal deity is Omononushi-no-Kami, recorded in the Okuninushi chapter of the upper book of the Kojiki as the deity who shone over the sea and arrived to help Okuninushi build the land, identified with the deity of Mt. Miwa enshrined at Omiwa Shrine in Nara. The Tokugawa retired emperor Sutoku, exiled to Sanuki and central figure of the Hogen Disturbance, is enshrined as an attendant deity. Both deities are venerated as protectors of sea travel by mariners since the early modern period. According to tradition, Omononushi-no-Kami descended onto Mt. Zozu in the Seto Inland Sea. During the medieval period the temple Matsuoji Konko-in served as the bettoji, and the deity was venerated as Konpira Daigongen under syncretism. In the Edo period, Konpira pilgrimage rivaled the Ise pilgrimage as a major popular journey. After the 1868 separation of buddhas and kami it was renamed Kotohira-gu and elevated to Kokuhei Chusha in 1919. The main rite is held October 9-11.