Mikami Shrine

Mikami Shrine
Mikami Shrine
	The Main Building of Mikami Shrine, a National Treasure
Religion
Affiliation	Shinto
Location
	Shown within Japan
Geographic coordinates	35°03′00″N 136°01′39″E / 35.0500°N 136.0274°ECoordinates: 35°03′00″N 136°01′39″E / 35.0500°N 136.0274°E
	Glossary of Shinto

Mikami Shrine (Japanese: 御上神社) is a Shintoist shrine in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. A Kanpei-taisha, it is located at the foot of Mount Mikami (432 meters above sea level), a prominent hill in this flat area near Lake Biwa.

Legend and History[]

The shrine's legends tell that it was established when Ame-no-mikage-no-mikoto, Amaterasu's grandson, came down on Mout Mikami, as its Shintai, during the reign of Emperor Kōrei of the third century B.C., and that a building of worship was built by Fujiwara no Fuhito in the current place ca. 700 A.D. The shrine appears in the "Shrines Volume" of the "Engishiki (Japanese: 延喜式", "Procedures of the Engi Era") of the tenth century A.D.

National Treasure[]

The shrine's main building, built in the Kamakura Period, is a National Treasure. There are other Important Cultural Properties in the shrine compound.^[1]

Festivals[]

The "Zuiki Festival of Mikami", celebrated every October as a harvesting festival, is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.^[2] The rice for Emperor Showa's first Niiname Festival in 1925 was grown in a paddy field nearby, which is celebrated every year in June by a rice planting ceremony.

The Worship Building, an Important Cultural Property (where weddings are often held)
Mount Mikami, as the Shrine's Shintai
The Outer Shrine on top of Mount Mikami
The rice for Emperor Showa was grown here.