Take Shrine

Tucked within the residential fabric of Fuchu-cho in Aki District, Take Shrine — 多家神社 — carries a weight of myth far larger than its modest precinct suggests. Known also by its poetic alternative name Enomiya (埃宮), the shrine marks the place where Japan’s legendary first emperor, Jimmu, halted his great eastern expedition and dwelled for seven years amid the forests of ancient Aki Province.

The site belongs to a lineage of profound official standing: it is recorded in the Engishiki of 927 as a Myojin Taisha, the highest tier of imperially recognized shrines, and it served for centuries as the Soja — the consolidated sanctuary where every kami of Aki Province was venerated under one roof, sparing newly appointed provincial governors the burden of visiting dozens of scattered shrines. That dual identity — origin palace of the imperial line and administrative hub of an entire province — gives Take Shrine a singular gravity among the shrines of the Hiroshima plain.

The current shrine buildings date from the Meiji and Taisho eras, yet one structure among them reaches back to the early Edo period: a storehouse rescued from Hiroshima Castle, now the only standing architectural remnant of that great fortress complex. To walk the gravel path here is to move through overlapping layers of Japan’s mythic, imperial, and feudal pasts simultaneously.

The oldest layer of Take Shrine’s history exists more in legend and ancient text than in verified archaeology. Shrine tradition holds that Emperor Jimmu, during his eastward campaign to establish the imperial seat at Yamato, made landfall in Aki Province and resided at a place called Takemikazuchi Palace — rendered as 多祁理宮 in the Kojiki — or, as the Nihon Shoki names it, the Enomiya. The shrine’s alternative name preserves this Nihon Shoki form to this day. The imperial sojourn is said to have lasted seven years, giving the entire locality a sacred association with the founding of the Japanese state.

By the Heian period this tradition had crystallized into official religion. The Engishiki of 927 lists Take Shrine as a Myojin Taisha — a Name-god Grand Shrine — placing it among the most prestigious sanctuaries in the land. Historical records show the shrine’s divine rank rising through the ninth century: in 859 alone, the deity received two promotions, first to Junior Fifth Rank Upper and then to Junior Fourth Rank Lower, as recorded in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku.

The medieval period brought decline. Warrior conflicts eroded the shrine’s resources and influence, and eventually its precise location was forgotten. By the Edo period two rival institutions were each claiming descent from the ancient Myojin Taisha: Matsuzaki Hachimangu, which housed a subsidiary shrine called Takei-sha, and the provincial Soja shrine of Aki. Both pressed their case through the Edo era without resolution.

The Meiji government settled the dispute decisively — but at a cost. In 1873 (Meiji 6), both competing shrines were abolished, and a new Take Shrine was formally established on the present site at the forest grove called Taresono-no-Mori (誰曽廼森). The kami of both predecessor institutions were enshrined together, and the shrine received its current name. To prevent future litigation, all historical documents held by the two abolished shrines were burned. The following year, 1874 (Meiji 7), the new shrine was designated a prefectural shrine (kensha). A fire in 1915 (Taisho 4) destroyed the main and worship halls; both were rebuilt in 1922 (Taisho 11) in their present forms.

The principal deity of Take Shrine is Jimmu / 神武天皇, the legendary first emperor of Japan, whose mythic residence in Aki Province is the very foundation on which the shrine’s identity rests. Jimmu represents the moment at which divine descent and human governance converge — the prototype of imperial authority and the origin point of the Japanese state as told in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.

Enshrined alongside him as primary co-deity is Aki-tsu-hiko-no-Mikoto / 安芸津彦命, venerated as the founding kami of Aki Province itself. His presence anchors the shrine to the local land and its people, making Take Shrine a meeting point between the universal founding myth and the particular history of this corner of the Hiroshima plain.

Three further deities occupy the aiden, the companion sanctuary flanking the main hall. Empress Jingu / 神功皇后, the regent-empress renowned for her legendary overseas campaign, and Emperor Ojin / 応神天皇, her son and the kami most closely associated with Hachiman worship, together reflect the shrine’s historical overlap with Matsuzaki Hachimangu, one of the two predecessor institutions merged here in 1873. The fifth deity, Okuninushi / 大己貴命 — the great land-sovereign of the Kojiki — brings the spirit of vast earthly dominion and is closely linked to the former Soja tradition that the other predecessor shrine carried.

The most enduring legend of Take Shrine concerns the naming of the grove that surrounds it. When Emperor Jimmu arrived in Aki Province during his eastern expedition, local people greeted the imperial party with reverence and curiosity. Jimmu, looking out over the unfamiliar landscape, asked: 「曽は誰そ」 — “Who is that?” The phrase echoed across the forest and gave the grove its name: Taresono-no-Mori, the Forest of “Who Is That?”

That story is not mere local color. It carries the logic of sacred topography — the idea that a place becomes holy the moment a divine figure speaks within it, that words spoken by the gods linger in the landscape and shape its name for all time. The grove’s name is, in this reading, a permanent echo of the founding emperor’s voice, preserved in the Hiroshima soil.

The deeper mythological current flows from the shrine’s identification with the Enomiya of the Nihon Shoki. In that text, the future emperor pauses his conquest at a place in Aki, rests, and gathers strength before pressing onward to the Kinai plain where Yamato will be established. Take Shrine thus sits at a narrative hinge point in Japan’s origin myth: not at the very beginning, and not at the triumphant end, but at the long middle passage when the divine mission hung in balance and the land of Aki provided sanctuary.

The main hall (honden) follows the sanken-sha nagare-zukuri style, a three-bay sanctuary with a sweeping asymmetrical roof that extends forward over a shallow porch — a form widely favored for high-ranking imperial and provincial shrines. The worship hall (haiden), rebuilt in 1922 after the 1915 fire, presents a five-bay by three-bay structure in irimoya-zukuri construction with a gabled hip-and-gable roof; the front face is decorated with a chidori-hafu, the distinctive crow-step gable that punctuates the roofline. Both buildings are finished in copper sheet roofing.

The true architectural treasure of the precinct stands apart from the worship structures: the hozo, or treasure storehouse, is a diminutive but historically irreplaceable building. Constructed in the azekura-zukuri log-cabin style — a technique associated with the earliest surviving Japanese storehouses — it is distinguished by an exceptionally rare feature: its interlocking corner timbers (aze) are shaped in square cross-section rather than the triangular form standard to the tradition. Shrine records hold that this storehouse was originally built within the third enclosure (sannomaru) of Hiroshima Castle during the early Edo period, in the Genna era (1615–1624), when the Asano clan entered Hiroshima. It was relocated to the shrine’s predecessor site and survived the 1915 fire. Today it stands as the only extant architectural remnant of Hiroshima Castle and was designated a Hiroshima Prefectural Important Cultural Property in 1954. A portable shrine (mikoshi) is housed within it.

Subsidiary shrines on the grounds include Kifune Shrine, dedicated to Takaokami-no-kami, Betsurai-no-kami, and Oyamatsumi-no-kami, as well as a Tenjin Shrine.

Take Shrine observes the full calendar of Shinto seasonal observances appropriate to a former Myojin Taisha and prefectural shrine. The annual grand festival (reisai) is the centrepiece of the ritual year, drawing parishioners from across Fuchu-cho and the surrounding Aki District communities for whom the shrine functions as a primary local sanctuary. The festival involves the processional deployment of the mikoshi stored in the Edo-period treasure house — a moment that activates the shrine’s most historically charged object in living ceremony.

Specific festival dates are not recorded in the available source material and are listed among unverifiable details; visitors seeking confirmed dates should contact the shrine office directly or check the official shrine website before traveling.

Take Shrine rewards visits at any season, but the precinct is at its most atmospheric in autumn, when the grove of Taresono-no-Mori turns and the light through the canopy falls across the copper-roofed halls with particular clarity. The relative quiet of weekday mornings means the storehouse and its unusual log-joint construction can be appreciated without crowds.

Spring brings the additional interest of the shrine’s subsidiary shrines and garden planting. Summer mornings, before Hiroshima’s intense heat builds, offer a stillness suited to contemplating the mythological depth of the site. The grove itself — whose name preserves the legendary words of Emperor Jimmu — feels most present on overcast days when the forest closes in.