Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City)

Isurugi Shrine on the hill of Kuzutsuka

Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City) (石動神社, Isurugi Jinja) is a Shinto shrine in Hakushincho, Kita Ward, Niigata City, traditionally said to have been founded in 1715, whose main hall of 1796, Edo-period worship hall and Furumine Shrine Main Hall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 8, 2008.

Another Isurugi Shrine, in Gotanda-machi, Nagaoka City, also has a registered main hall and worship hall, so this site adds the city name to keep the two apart. The principal deity here is Isurugi Okami, and the Kita Ward Local History Museum of Niigata City describes the shrine as the oldest in Kuzutsuka, the district around Toyosaka Station.

The low hill under the shrine is said to be where the name Kuzutsuka itself began. The museum's signboard gives two stories. In one, kudzu and wisteria vines smothered a great tree on the hill, so people called it Kuzutsuka, "kudzu mound," and the village took the name. In the other, a lord of Shibata passing by when the hill was ringed by a lake asked about the white flowers covering it, and on hearing they were kudzu, called the place the mound of kudzu.

History of Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City)

The founding date of 1715 rests on tradition. The earliest firm evidence is a ridge tag (munafuda) of 1732 and an entry in a land survey register of 1737. A plaque reading "Isurugi Daigongen," written by Odani Hikoshiro Hirotaka, the shogunate's intendant at Suibara, also hangs on the shrine.

To the left of the stone steps stands a monument erected in 1856. It was proposed by Endo Shichirozaemon (遠藤七郎左衛門国忠), headman of Kuzutsuka, with text and calligraphy by the nativist scholar Suzuki Shigetane. The inscription says that in 1598 a senior retainer of the Mizoguchi clan, newly moved from Kaga to Shibata, brought the god of Mount Isurugi in Noto, which he had worshipped at his residence in Kaga, and installed it on this hill as the guardian of the land. Projects such as cutting a channel at Matsugasaki to drain water to the sea then went well, the inscription goes on, and the village and its market grew. The townspeople clearly saw the shrine as the foundation of Kuzutsuka's prosperity.

The three registered buildings

All three were registered in the 60th round, as numbers 15-0296 (main hall), 15-0297 (worship hall) and 15-0298 (Furumine Shrine Main Hall), under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the main hall was built in 1796 and relocated in 2004, with a footprint of 6.4 square meters. The worship hall dates from the late Edo period (1830 to 1867), was renovated in 2004, and covers 20 square meters. The Furumine Shrine Main Hall was built in 1837 and moved in the Meiji period; at 3.6 square meters it is the smallest of the three, yet carving covers almost every surface.

An offering hall (heiden) links the worship hall to the main hall, so the three form one continuous building. The offering hall itself is not part of the registration.

Layout of the Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City) grounds

Stone bridges cross the approaches. The one on the path to Isurugi Shrine is called Kamebashi, the Turtle Bridge, and the one on the path to Furumine Shrine is Tsurubashi, the Crane Bridge. Both are relics of an irrigation channel that already appears on a map of 1733.

At the top of the stone steps is the worship hall, with the offering hall and then the main hall behind it; the main hall stands on the highest ground at the center of the precinct. The Furumine Shrine Main Hall stands in the same precinct, enclosed in a protective shelter (oiya) and facing east.

Visiting Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City)

The buildings of Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City) can be seen from within the grounds, and no admission fee is published. No public opening of the interiors is announced, and we found no published photography policy, so photograph the exteriors only and do not get in the way of worship or festivals.

The nearest station is Toyosaka on the JR Hakushin Line; the shrine is about 200 meters northeast of the station in a straight line. The registered address is 1-1-11 Hakushincho, Kita Ward, Niigata City. According to the museum's signboard, the festivals fall on April 12 and 13 and September 6 and 7, and on September 6 a kagura dance called Shojaku no Kagura is performed. Furumine Shrine's own festival is on June 15 and 16, the time when the doors of its shelter, normally closed, are opened.