Shinzan Shrine

Shinzan Shrine (Shinzan-jinja) stands on Mount Shinzan in Oga City, Akita Prefecture, with Ninigi-no-Mikoto and Takemikazuchi-no-Kami as its main enshrined deities. Ninigi is recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as the imperial ancestor who descended from Takamagahara to Mount Takachiho, and Takemikazuchi appears in the same chronicle as the warrior deity who secured the transfer of the Land of Reeds. According to shrine tradition, Takenouchi-no-Sukune invited these deities here during the reign of Emperor Keiko, and the site later flourished as a Shugendo center after the Jikaku Daishi Ennin founded Kohan-ji at Shinzan in the Jogan era (859-877). The shrine is the recognized origin of the Namahage tradition, inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018.