Usa Grand Shrine

Usa Grand Shrine stands on Mount Ogura in Usa, southern Ōita Prefecture, at a historic junction of sea and land routes in the Bunzen plain. The shrine complex occupies approximately 860,000 square metres and comprises upper and lower shrine precincts (jōgū and shogū). Since ancient times, the Usa region has been a focal point for traffic and ritual practice in northern Kyushu.

The principal enshrined kami (shusaijin) are venerated in three halls: Hachiman-no-Okami (the deified Emperor Ōjin) in the first, the Munakata Three Goddesses (Takiri-bime-no-Mikoto, Ichikishima-hime-no-Mikoto, and Takitsu-hime-no-Mikoto) in the second, and Empress Jingū in the third. Hachiman-no-Okami came to be regarded as the ancestral spirit of emperors and military houses from the Nara period onward.

According to shrine tradition, the sanctuary was founded in 571 CE when the oracle-priest Ōga-no-Higi received a divine revelation from Hachiman. Multiple records in the *Shoku Nihon Shoki* document the shrine's oracular pronouncements on state affairs during the Nara period, notably the oracle of 749 CE and the role of the Usa Hachiman oracle in the Dōkyō incident of 769 CE. The three main halls (honden) are designated National Treasures; numerous other structures, including the Gojō bridge on the approach path, are Important Cultural Properties.

Major annual festivals include the spring rite on 18 March, an imperial envoy festival held once per decade, and the Miyuki-e procession held every three years, in which the deity is believed to visit subsidiary shrines throughout the region in an ancient ritual tradition particular to Usa.