Tamamura Hachimangu

Tamamura Hachimangu (Tamamura-hachimangu) stands in Tamamura Town, Sawa District, Gunma Prefecture, north of the Tone River, as a regional Hachiman shrine in the Usa Hachiman belief network. The main enshrined deity is Emperor Ojin (Hondawake-no-Mikoto), with Empress Jingu and Himegami as co-enshrined deities, following the Hachiman pantheon. According to shrine tradition, the shrine was founded in 1195 by Minamoto no Yoritomo at the request of his retainer Adachi Tomokane and modeled on Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura. The main hall, dating to the Muromachi period (1497) and built in the three-bay nagare-zukuri style with elaborate carving, is designated an Important Cultural Property and survives as a representative example of late-medieval Hachiman architecture in the eastern Kanto plain. The shrine was elevated to gosha rank in the Meiji era and continues as a Jinja Honcho registered shrine.