Chusha Shrine 中社

Official explanation

Chusha Shrine, located centrally between Okusha and Hokosha shrines, is dedicated to Ame no Yagokoro Omoikane, the deity of wisdom and intelligence. According to Shinto legend, this deity came up with the idea for the kagura dance that lured the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami from her cave. Inside Chusha’s main building is a stage where, as at Hokosha, the legendary kagura dance is reenacted once a month. Above the stage is the “Dragon Ceiling” painted in the nineteenth century by Kawanabe Kyosai, son of a samurai from Koga Domain (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture) and Japan’s first political caricaturist. On display in the Treasure Hall, located on the grounds of Chusha, are a number of Important Cultural Properties from the Nara (710–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods.

Chusha is surrounded by numerous Japanese cedar trees (sugi; Cryptomeria japonica), some of them estimated to be over 700 years old. In addition to these are the Sanbonsugi, three Japanese cedars that are believed to be over 800 years old. These three trees stand in a perfect triangle with Chusha’s wooden torii gate in the center. It is said that some of the 300 Japanese cedars lining the path to Okusha Shrine were grown from the branches of one of the Sanbonsugi.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.