Kachimi Shrine

Kachimi Shrine

Kachimi Shrine (加知彌神社, also written 加知弥神社) in Terauchi, Shikano-cho, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, is an ancient Shinto shrine whose main hall and Zuishinmon gate of 1830 and worship hall of 1921 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on March 6, 2024 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Locally it is known as Kashijuku-san, after its former name.

Each of the three buildings was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2024. According to the Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines, Kachimi Shrine appears in the shrine register of the Engishiki, compiled in the 10th century, and was called Kashijuku Daimyojin until the early modern period; it took its present name at the start of the Meiji era. When it was founded is not known. The enshrined deities are Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto and Tamayorihime no Mikoto.

Warriors favoured the shrine from the medieval period on. Local lords led by Takeda Takanobu rebuilt its halls in 1565, and in 1580 Kikkawa Motoharu prayed here for victory and granted it land. Kamei Korenori repaired the buildings several times, and in the Edo period the Ikeda lords of Tottori kept up repairs and gifts of land; six generations of them came to worship in person. The estate granted by Ikeda Mitsunaka in 1633, assessed at 39 koku 6 to 9 sho 3 go of rice, is said to have been the largest of any shrine in Inaba and Hoki provinces at the time. Kikkawa Motoharu's letters of prayer and land grant became a Tottori Prefecture tangible cultural property in 1957.

The Grounds of Kachimi Shrine and Its Three Buildings

The grounds of Kachimi Shrine lie in a wooded precinct on the west side of the straight prefectural road from Hamamura to Shikano, and the buildings face east (Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines). The Zuishinmon gate stands at the east entrance, the worship hall lies beyond it to the west, and the main hall stands further west in the middle of the precinct; all three face east (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Walking in from the road, you meet the gate, the worship hall and the main hall on a single line.

The Agency introduces the three together as the main hall, worship hall and Zuishinmon gate of an Engishiki-listed shrine north of the site of Shikano Castle. The main hall has a gabled roof entered from the gable end (Kirizuma-zukuri, Tsumairi) and a porch under a kara-hafu gable. The worship hall of the Taisho era has a hip-and-gable roof (Irimoya-zukuri), but its oversized kara-hafu porch echoes the main hall. The gate is an irregular Hakkyakumon with its ridge moved to the east, dividing a room for the guardian figures from a place to worship them. Each building is described on its own page.

The precinct covers 5,967 square metres. Its woods include large cedars, ginkgos and zelkovas, and the sacred cedar on the right of the grounds, 4.3 metres around the trunk, is one of Tottori Prefecture's hundred notable trees (Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines). Two smaller shrines, Kashijuku Inari Shrine and a joint shrine for four deities including Toshogu and Kojin, also stand in the grounds.

In November 1913, 14 neighbouring shrines were combined into a Kashijuku Shrine built in the grounds, but after the Second World War they were returned to or near their former sites (Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines).

Festivals at Kachimi Shrine

According to the Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines, the annual festival of Kachimi Shrine is held on October 21 and the Wakuguri (ring-passing) festival on July 30, when dances are performed in the community hall next door and paper figures are floated away.

Getting to Kachimi Shrine

Kachimi Shrine is at 155-1 Terauchi, Shikano-cho, Tottori City, about 3.5 kilometres in a straight line south of Hamamura Station on the JR San'in Line. Shikano's tourist guide gives the drive from Hamamura Station to Shikano on Prefectural Road 32 as about 10 minutes, and the shrine woods lie on the west side of that road.

No official information was found on visiting hours, parking or access to the interiors of the halls (checked October 31, 2026); the three buildings are seen from the grounds. The Tottori Association of Shinto Shrines lists the shrine's telephone number as 0857-84-2430.