Shibukawa Hachimangu

Shibukawa Hachimangu, located in Shibukawa, Shibukawa City, Gunma Prefecture, served as the chief tutelary of the former Shibukawa parish in Kozuke Province since the early modern period. It stands on a terrace on the right bank of the middle Tone River. Together with Ikaho Shrine in Ikaho-cho and Haruna Shrine in Takasaki, it forms part of the network of the principal western Kozuke shrines linked with the mountain devotion at the northern edge of the Kanto plain. The principal deity is Hondawake-no-Mikoto (Ojin Tenno), with Empress Jingu and Himegami as attendants. The shrine follows the configuration of Usa Jingu in Buzen Province, the head Hachiman shrine, and forms one node of the Hachiman branch network across the Kanto region. Hachiman, originally the clan deity of the Minamoto family, became a local tutelary continually venerated by communities in the early modern era. According to tradition, the shrine was founded between 1249 and 1256 by inviting the deity from Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura. From the medieval period it was preserved through the upheavals of the Shibukawa, Takeda, and Hojo wars, and in the Edo period it served as the chief tutelary of the Shibukawa parish under the Maebashi and Isesaki domains. It received the kensha rank in the Meiji era. The September annual rite continues local practice.