Hiraoka Shrine

About

Hiraoka Shrine nestles on the western slopes of the Ikoma range in the centre of Osaka Prefecture. In its earliest days it was a place of mountain worship, with the kami of the peak Kozudake honoured behind the shrine. That mountain kami came in time to be identified with Ame-no-Koyane, the tutelary deity of the Nakatomi clan from which the great Fujiwara family descended.

Four kami are enshrined at Hiraoka: Ame-no-Koyane, ancestor of the Fujiwara; his consort Hime-gami; and the warrior deities Futsunushi of Katori Jingu and Takemikazuchi of Kashima Jingu, both protectors of the Fujiwara. These same four kami were transferred from Hiraoka to Nara when the Fujiwara established Kasuga Taisha, giving Hiraoka the affectionate title Moto-Kasuga, the original Kasuga.

The main shrine, like that of Kasuga, comprises four Kasuga-zukuri sanctuaries within a single roofed structure, and is designated a Tangible Cultural Property of Higashiosaka. The principal annual festival is observed on 1 February, when the shrine community gathers to renew the bond between kami and ujiko, the protected parishioners of the deity.

History

The shrine's founding date is unknown but is believed to lie in the Kofun period. By the Heian era, Hiraoka was listed in the official chronicles, named a Myojin-taisha in the Engishiki, and recognised as the Ichinomiya of Kawachi Province.

In 1275 the monk Eison of Saidaiji is recorded as leading a hundred priests in prayers here for the deliverance of Japan from the Mongol invasions. The shrine was burned by Oda Nobunaga in 1574 and rebuilt under the patronage of Toyotomi Hideyori between 1602 and 1605. The present main buildings were raised in 1826 through the efforts of local parishioners, and in the Meiji era the shrine was elevated to the rank of Kanpei Taisha, an imperial shrine of the first order.