Tsukubasan Shrine

Tsukubasan Shrine (Tsukubasan-jinja) stands at the foot of Mount Tsukuba (877 m) in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, with branch sanctuaries at the male peak (Nantai) and female peak (Nyotai) summits. The main enshrined deities are Izanagi-no-Kami and Izanami-no-Kami, identified with the male and female peaks respectively. Both deities are recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) creation section as the divine couple who produced the land and the gods. Mount Tsukuba appears in the Manyoshu (8th century), the Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (early 8th century), and many medieval poetic compendia as an early sacred mountain of eastern Japan. The shrine is recorded in the Engishiki (927 CE) jinmyocho of the Tsukuba district of Hitachi Province as "Tsukuba-jinja, Myojin Dai." The shrine was a center of Shugendo activity through the medieval period and was elevated to kensha rank in the Meiji era. The main hall was rebuilt in 1875.