Tsumagaki-jinja

Tsumagaki Shrine (Tsumagaki-jinja) stands in Ajimu Town, Usa City, Oita Prefecture, in the Buzen Province sphere of the Usa Jingu Hachiman cult. The shrine is recorded in the Engishiki (927 CE) jinmyocho of the Usa district of Buzen Province as a regional shrine. The main enshrined deities include the maternal-line deity associated with Empress Jingu's consort, with shrine tradition identifying Tamayori-hime-no-Mikoto (recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) as the mother of Emperor Jimmu) as a chief enshrined figure. The shrine functioned as one of the eight major branch shrines of the Usa Hachiman network in the medieval period and held a place of honor in the regional Hachiman shaden hierarchy. It was designated a gosha in the Meiji era and continues as a Jinja Honcho registered shrine. The shrine retains an archaic mountain-shrine layout with ritual sites distributed across the Tsumagaki ridge above the main precinct.