Honjō Shrine (本荘神社 (岐阜市))

Honjō Shrine was once a single large shrine that was divided into three separate shrines during the political upheavals of medieval Japan. What remains today in central Gifu City is the smallest of the three fragments, yet it preserves the oldest ritual lineage — a quiet neighborhood shrine whose autumn festival still follows protocols established in the Heian period. The other two shrines have larger grounds and more visitors, but this one kept the name and the original location, a small plot where a medicinal spring once flowed and where wounded samurai came to be healed during the siege of Gifu Castle in 1600.

The shrine was founded in the early Heian period, approximately 850 CE, as a guardian shrine for the agricultural communities along the Nagara River plain. It was originally called Honjō Daimyōjin and served as the spiritual center for what was then Honjō Village. During the Sengoku period, when Gifu Castle changed hands repeatedly between rival warlords, the shrine grounds were bisected by new roads and defensive earthworks. By 1615, following the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, the shrine had been formally divided into three separate institutions to serve different neighborhoods. The current Honjō Shrine retained the central plot and the original well, which had been used for ritual purification since the shrine’s founding. The quiet restoration of the main hall in 1868 preserved its Edo-period architectural details, including cypress bark roofing that is replaced every forty years.

Ōnamuchi no Mikoto (大己貴命), also known as Ōkuninushi, is the primary deity enshrined here. He is revered as a god of nation-building, medicine, and relationships — the deity who relinquished his earthly rule to the heavenly kami in the great transfer of sovereignty described in the Kojiki. Honjō Shrine emphasizes his aspect as a healer and protector of agriculture, reflecting the shrine’s origins in a farming community. His messenger is the white rabbit, commemorated in a small stone carving near the purification font, referencing the myth of the Hare of Inaba whom Ōnamuchi rescued and healed. The shrine also enshrines two secondary deities: Sukunahikona no Mikoto, Ōnamuchi’s companion in establishing medical knowledge across Japan, and a local agricultural kami whose name varies in historical records.

The founding legend involves a traveling monk who fell ill while passing through Honjō Village in the ninth century. Delirious with fever, he dreamed of a white rabbit leading him to a spring where the water glowed faintly in moonlight. He drank from it and recovered by morning. When villagers investigated, they found the spring the monk described and noticed that injured animals — deer with broken legs, birds with damaged wings — gathered near it at dusk. The villagers built a small shrine at the spring and dedicated it to Ōnamuchi, recognizing the white rabbit as his messenger. During the Battle of Gifu Castle in 1600, soldiers from both armies reportedly visited the spring at night to wash their wounds, observing an informal truce within sight of the shrine grounds. The spring dried up during urban development in the 1920s, but its location is marked by a stone monument behind the current main hall.

The shrine occupies a compact plot surrounded by residential buildings, entered through a small torii gate of weathered stone. The main hall (honden) is a modest structure built in the nagare-zukuri style, with a gently sloping roof and cypress bark covering. The worship hall (haiden) was rebuilt in 1952 but incorporates wooden beams salvaged from the Edo-period structure. To the left of the main approach stands a centuries-old muku tree (aphananthe), designated as a protected tree by Gifu City, whose roots have lifted the surrounding pavement into gentle waves. The purification font is flanked by two stone rabbits added in the Meiji period. Behind the main hall, a stone monument marks where the medicinal spring once emerged, surrounded by a small grove of bamboo that provides the only green space in the densely built neighborhood.

• Honjō Reitaisai (October 15) — The annual festival preserves Heian-period ritual music performed by local musicians who have inherited the tradition across generations; portable shrines are carried through the narrow surrounding streets
• Hatsumōde (New Year) — Quieter than major shrines but attended faithfully by neighborhood residents who have worshipped here for generations
• Setsubun (February 3) — Bean-throwing ceremony to drive out misfortune, followed by distribution of medicinal herbs blessed at the shrine
• Monthly purification rites (1st and 15th) — Small gatherings where traditional prayers for healing and agriculture are chanted by the shrine’s priest

October, during the autumn festival when the neighborhood transforms the quiet shrine into a community celebration with ritual music that has been performed here for over a thousand years. The old muku tree turns golden in late November, creating a canopy of yellow leaves over the small grounds. Weekday mornings are nearly silent, offering a glimpse of neighborhood shrine culture as elderly residents stop briefly to pray before continuing their daily errands. Avoid Golden Week and New Year’s first three days only if you prefer solitude; crowds here are relative and never overwhelming.