Hirota Shrine

Hirota Shrine in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture — from which the city's very name derives — is unique in Japan as the only shrine dedicated to the ara-mitama (fierce, active spirit) of Amaterasu Ōmikami. According to the Nihon Shoki, Empress Jingū established the shrine in the 3rd century following divine instructions received before her military campaign to the Korean peninsula, making this the most important sacred site she founded upon her return. During the Heian period Hirota Shrine became an object of direct imperial patronage, and Emperor Shirakawa designated it one of the Nijūnisha — the twenty-two most revered shrines in Japan. It held Kanpei-taisha (first-rank imperial shrine) status from 1871 to 1946 and is Hyogo Prefecture's only grand shrine (taisha). Its prominence in the Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) as the "Nishi no Miya" (Western Shrine) speaks to its central place in classical Heian culture. The shrine is particularly known for protection against illness and misfortune (yakunoke). It is also celebrated for its grove of kobanomitsuba tsutsuji (three-leaf azaleas), which bloom spectacularly each spring and are closely associated with the shrine's identity.

Hirota Shrine is located in Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo. The full address is: 7-7 Taisha-cho, Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo.

The enshrined deities are: Amaterasu Omikami.