Tokiwa Shrine (Mito)

Tokiwa Shrine, located in Tokiwa-cho, Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a shrine founded between the late Edo and early Meiji periods enshrining the Mito domain lords Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628-1701) and Tokugawa Nariaki (1800-1860). It is the former Bekkaku Kanpeisha and a Bekkaku Hyo shrine of Jinja Honcho. The shrine stands adjacent to the Kairakuen garden on the north shore of Lake Senba in central Mito. The precincts were laid out on a corner of the Kairakuen built by the ninth Mito lord Nariaki in 1842, near the Kodokan (the Mito domain school, a Special Historic Site) and the Mito Castle ruins. The principal deities are the two Mito lords Tokugawa Mitsukuni (Takayuzuru-umashi-michine-no-Mikoto) and Tokugawa Nariaki (Oshitakeo-kuni-no-mitate-no-Mikoto). Mitsukuni, the second lord, sponsored the compilation of the Dai Nihon Shi; Nariaki, the ninth lord, perfected Mito-gaku and influenced late-Edo politics. The shrine belongs to the lineage of modern shrines venerating historical figures, alongside the Takeda Shrine of Takeda Shingen and the Nikko Toshogu of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was founded in 1873 by special command of the Meiji Tenno, elevated to Bekkaku Kanpeisha in 1874, and given its current site adjoining Kairakuen in 1883. The annual rite on May 12 commemorates Mitsukuni and is held during the plum festival season at Kairakuen.