Rokko Hachiman Shrine

Rokko Hachiman Shrine (Rokko Hachiman-jinja) is located in Hachiman-cho, Nada Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, on a terrace at the southern foot of the Rokko range. The shrine sits between JR Rokkomichi and Hankyu Rokko stations and is the tutelary shrine of the Nada area, encompassing the principal sake breweries of the Nada Gogo. The principal deities are Emperor Ojin (Homuda-wake-no-Mikoto), the three Hime-Okami, and Empress Jingu (Okinaga-tarashi-hime), following the Hachiman tradition of Usa Jingu in Buzen Province. Shrine tradition records founding in Jisho 4 (1180), when Taira-no-Kiyomori invited the deity from Iwashimizu Hachimangu in Yamashiro on the occasion of the Fukuhara transfer of the capital; reliable documentary attestation begins in the medieval period. The shrine became the tutelary site of the southern Rokko region and gained the patronage of Nada sake brewers in the Edo period. Ranked as a village shrine and later as a prefectural shrine in the Meiji era. Damaged in the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake of 1995 and subsequently restored. Principal festivals: yakuyoke grand festival in January and the grand festival in October.