Yoshida Shrine

Yoshida Shrine (Yoshida-jinja) is located in Yoshida Kaguraoka-cho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City, on the slopes of Mount Yoshida (Kaguraoka) east of Kyoto University. The shrine houses four principal deities: Takemikazuchi-no-Mikoto, Iwainushi-no-Mikoto (Futsunushi), Ame-no-Koyane-no-Mikoto, and Hime-no-Kami, the same Fujiwara ancestral group enshrined at Kasuga Taisha in Nara. Shrine tradition records founding in Jogan 1 (859 CE) by Fujiwara-no-Yamakage, who invoked the deities from Kasuga. The Daigengu within the precinct enshrines the 'eight million deities' (yaoyorozu-no-kami) and embodies the doctrinal structure of Yoshida Shinto (Yuiitsu Shinto), codified by Yoshida Kanetomo (1435-1511) after the Onin War, in Bunmei 16 (1484). The Yoshida family later held the hereditary office of jingi-kanrei and controlled the conferral of deity ranks on shrines throughout the country until reform in the Meiji era. The shrine was ranked as a former Kanpei Chusha. The Setsubun-sai in February is its most prominent festival.