Toga Shrine

Toga Shrine (Toga-jinja) stands at the foot of Mount Hongu in Toyokawa City, Aichi Prefecture, with the satonomiya (lower shrine) and okunomiya (upper shrine) precincts as a paired mountain-shrine system. It is the ichinomiya of Mikawa Province and is recorded in the Engishiki (927 CE) jinmyocho of the Hoi district of Mikawa Province as "Toga-jinja, Myojin Dai." The main enshrined deity is Onamuchi-no-Mikoto (Okuninushi-no-Kami), recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) from the Inaba-no-Shirousagi section through the Land-of-Reeds transfer as the principal earthly deity of Izumo. According to shrine tradition, the okunomiya was founded on the summit of Mount Hongu in the seventh century, and the satonomiya was established at the foot in 702 CE during the reign of Emperor Mommu. The shrine was elevated to kokuhei shosha rank in the Meiji era and continues as the Mikawa Province ichinomiya.