Nakayama Shrine 中山神社 | |
Map Type: | Japan Okayama Prefecture#Japan |
Coordinates: | 35.1002°N 133.9946°W |
Map Relief: | 1 |
Religious Affiliation: | Shinto |
Deity: | Kagamitsukuri-no-kami |
Location: | 695 Ichinomiya, Tsuyama-shi, Okayama-ken |
Festival: | April 29 |
is a Shinto shrine in the Ichinomiya neighborhood of the city of Tsuyama in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It is the ichinomiya of former Mimasaka Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on April 29. Although the kanji of the shrine's name is now pronounced "Nakayama", in the past the shrine was often referred to by its alternative pronunciation "Chuzen Jinja" or "Chuzen Dai-Gongen".[1]
The kami enshrined at Nakayama Jinja are:
The origins of Nakayama Jinja are uncertain. According to the shrine's undocumented legend, it was founded in 707 AD. There is another theory that the shrine was built when Mimasaka Province separated from Bizen Province in 703. The earliest time the shrine appears in documentary evidence is in an entry dated 860 in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku. Per the Engishiki, which was complied between 905 and 967 AD, the shrine is listed as the only in Mimasaka Province, and by the Kamakura period, it was regarded as the ichinomiya of the province. During the Sengoku period, in 1533, the shrine was burned down by Amago Haruhisa during his invasion of the province, and reconstructed by Haruhisa himself in 1559. After the Meiji Restoration, it was designated as a in 1871.[2] [3]