Shiwa Inari Shrine

Shiwa Inari Shrine, located in Masuzawa Maeyama, Shiwa Town, Shiwa District, Iwate Prefecture, is the principal Inari shrine of the former Shiwa District in Mutsu Province, sometimes counted among the three great Inari shrines of Japan. It stands in central Iwate, in Shiwa Town on the middle Kitakami River, with the related Shiwa Furu-Inari Shrine standing in the same town. The precincts lie among wooded slopes and were sited as a stop on the road network running north and south through the Kitakami basin. The principal deity is Uka-no-Mitama-no-Okami, with attendant deities Onamuchi-no-Okami, Sadahiko-no-Okami, Omiya-no-Me-no-Okami, and Shi-no-Okami, the same five Inari deities as Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. The upper book of the Kojiki records Uka-no-Mitama as the child of Susanoo and Kamuoichi-hime, providing the basis for the cult of rice and commerce. Tradition relates that in 1057 Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie invited the deity from Mt. Inari in Yamashiro during the Former Nine Years War. From the medieval period it was venerated by the Nanbu family and was one of the prayer shrines of the Morioka domain in the early modern era. It received kensha rank in the Meiji era. The first horse festival in February and the annual rite in May are the chief festivals.