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Mibu, Tochigi

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Mibu ( 壬生町 , Mibu-machi ) is a town located in Tochigi Prefecture , Japan . As of 1 August 2020, the town had an estimated population of 39,158 in 16,149 households, and a population density of 640 persons per km. The total area of the town is 61.06 square kilometres (23.58 sq mi).

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65-450: Mibu is located in south-central Tochigi Prefecture . The town is situated in the northern portion of the Kanto plain and is mostly flat terrain with an elevation of 50 to 100 meters above sea level. The Kurokawa River flows through the town. The is about 90 kilometers north of Tokyo metropolis , and is bordered by the prefectural capital of Utsunomiya to the north. Approximately a third of

130-788: A himorogi , or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a yorishiro , which can also serve as direct bonds to a kami . There may be a haiden ( 拝殿 , meaning: "hall of worship") and other structures as well. Although only one word ("shrine") is used in English, in Japanese, Shinto shrines may carry any one of many different, non-equivalent names like gongen , -gū , jinja , jingū , mori , myōjin , -sha , taisha , ubusuna or yashiro . Miniature shrines ( hokora ) can occasionally be found on roadsides. Large shrines sometimes have on their precincts miniature shrines, sessha ( 摂社 ) or massha ( 末社 ) . Mikoshi ,

195-652: A kami is believed to reside in them. Shintai are not themselves part of kami , but rather just symbolic repositories which make them accessible to human beings for worship; the kami inhabits them. Shintai are also of necessity yorishiro , that is objects by their very nature capable of attracting kami . The most common shintai are objects like mirrors, swords, jewels (for example comma-shaped stones called magatama ), gohei (wands used during religious rites), and sculptures of kami called shinzō ( 神像 ) , but they can be also natural objects such as rocks, mountains, trees, and waterfalls. Mountains were among

260-529: A cat 2.2 three-day road race of the UCI Asia Tour Nikkō National Park is famous for its UNESCO World Heritage Site which was registered as the 10th World Heritage Site in 1999. This encompasses Rinnō-ji, Nikkō Tōshō-gū , Mount Nantai , and Futarasan Shrine . The Kegon Falls , also in Nikkō, is popular with tourists. To travel between the city and the falls, automobiles and buses take

325-493: A cultural import which provided much of Shinto architecture's vocabulary. The rōmon ( 楼門 , tower gate ) , the haiden , the kairō ( 回廊 , corridor ) , the tōrō , or stone lantern, and the komainu , or lion dogs, are all elements borrowed from Buddhism. Until the Meiji period (1868–1912), shrines as they exist today were rare. With very few exceptions like Ise Grand Shrine and Izumo Taisha , they were just

390-651: A high deity. Jingū ( 神宮 ) is a shrine of particularly high status that has a deep relationship with the Imperial household or enshrines an Emperor, as for example in the case of the Ise Jingū and the Meiji Jingū. The name Jingū alone, can refer only to the Ise Jingū, whose official name is just "Jingū". It is a formulation close to jinja ( 神社 ) with the character Sha ( 社 ) being replaced with gū ( 宮 ) , emphasizing its high rank Miya ( 宮 )

455-448: A part of a temple-shrine complex controlled by Buddhist clergy. These complexes were called jingū-ji ( 神宮寺 , literally: "shrine temple") , places of worship composed of a Buddhist temple and of a shrine dedicated to a local kami . The complexes were born when a temple was erected next to a shrine to help its kami with its karmic problems. At the time, kami were thought to be also subjected to karma , and therefore in need of

520-460: A rock or waterfall housing a local kami ), or of an artificial one, which must therefore be procured or made to the purpose. An example of the first case are the Nachi Falls , worshiped at Hiryū Shrine near Kumano Nachi Taisha and believed to be inhabited by a kami called Hiryū Gongen . The first duty of a shrine is to house and protect its shintai and the kami which inhabits it. If

585-552: A salvation only Buddhism could provide. Having first appeared during the Nara period (710–794), the jingū-ji remained common for over a millennium until, with few exceptions, they were destroyed in compliance with the new policies of the Meiji administration in 1868. The Shinto shrine went through a massive change when the Meiji administration promulgated a new policy of separation of kami and foreign Buddhas ( shinbutsu bunri ) with

650-424: A shrine has more than one building, the one containing the shintai is called honden ; because it is meant for the exclusive use of the kami , it is always closed to the public and is not used for prayer or religious ceremonies. The shintai leaves the honden only during festivals ( matsuri ), when it is put in portable shrines ( mikoshi ) and carried around the streets among the faithful. The portable shrine

715-413: A shrine to another: the divided spirit's new location can be a privately owned object or an individual's house. The kanjō process was of fundamental importance in the creation of all of Japan's shrine networks ( Inari shrines , Hachiman shrines , etc.). The shake (社家) are families and the former social class that dominated Shinto shrines through hereditary positions within a shrine. The social class

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780-493: A small shrine ( chinjusha ) dedicated to its Shinto tutelary kami , and vice versa Buddhist figures (e.g. goddess Kannon ) are revered in Shinto shrines. The defining features of a shrine are the kami it enshrines and the shintai (or go-shintai if the honorific prefix go- is used) that houses it. While the name literally means "body of a kami", shintai are physical objects worshiped at or near Shinto shrines because

845-528: A total area of 6,408.09 square km. As of 1 April 2012, 21% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks , namely Nikkō National Park , Oze National Park , and eight Prefectural Natural Parks. Before the Meiji Restoration , Tochigi was known as Shimotsuke Province . In the early 15th century, the Ashikaga Gakkō , Japan's oldest school of higher education,

910-588: Is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu . Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,897,649 (1 June 2023) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km² (2,474 sq mi ). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the west, Saitama Prefecture to the south, and Ibaraki Prefecture to the southeast. Utsunomiya is the capital and largest city of Tochigi Prefecture, with other major cities including Oyama , Tochigi , and Ashikaga . Tochigi Prefecture

975-489: Is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami , the deities of the Shinto religion. The honden (本殿, meaning: "main hall") is where a shrine's patron kami is/are enshrined. The honden may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called

1040-458: Is also used as a suffix -sha or sometimes -ja ( 社 ) , as in Shinmei-sha or Tenjin-ja , indicates a minor shrine that has received through the kanjō process a kami from a more important one. A mori ( 杜 ) is a place where a kami is present. It can therefore be a shrine and, in fact, the characters 神社, 社 and 杜 can all be read "mori" ("grove"). This reading reflects the fact

1105-423: Is an operation called kanjō , a propagation process through which a kami is invited to a new location and there re-enshrined. The new shrine is administered completely independent from the one it originated from. However, other transfer mechanisms exist. In Ise Grand Shrine's case, for example, its network of Shinmei shrines (from Shinmei, 神明; another name for Amaterasu) grew due to two concurrent causes. During

1170-501: Is believed to serve the mountain on which it stands—images or objects are therefore unnecessary. For the same reason, it has a worship hall, a haiden ( 拝殿 ) , but no place to house the kami , called shinden ( 神殿 ) . Archeology confirms that, during the Yayoi period, the most common shintai ( 神体 ) (a yorishiro actually housing the enshrined kami ) in the earliest shrines were nearby mountain peaks that supplied stream water to

1235-519: Is covered by forests. Mushrooms, such as Shiitake mushrooms, make up half of the forest industry, with an output of approximately 5.6 billion yen. Tochigi is home to many universities and colleges including those for science and technology , literature , medicine , education , and art . Below is an alphabetical list of some of the universities located in Tochigi. The sports teams and events listed below are based in Tochigi. Tour de Tochigi ,

1300-511: Is its best extant example. In Shinto it has played a particularly significant role in preserving ancient architectural styles. Izumo Taisha , Sumiyoshi Taisha , and Nishina Shinmei Shrine each represent a different style whose origin is believed to predate Buddhism in Japan. These three styles are known respectively as taisha-zukuri , sumiyoshi-zukuri , and shinmei-zukuri . Shrines show various influences, particularly that of Buddhism,

1365-614: Is one of only eight landlocked prefectures and its mountainous northern region is a popular tourist region in Japan. The Nasu area is known for its onsens , local sake , and ski resorts, the villa of the Imperial Family , and the Nasushiobara station of the Shinkansen railway line. The city of Nikkō , with its ancient Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Situated among

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1430-986: Is the Kita-Kantō Expressway , with the 18.5 km that connect the Tochigi-Tsuga Interchange and the Utsunomiya-Kaminokawa Interchange. Portions of the Kita-Kantō Expressway are still being constructed and is set to be fully completed by 2011. The highway will link the region's other main transport arteries, the Tōhoku, the Jōban and the Kan-Etsu Expressways , providing a link to the international port of Hitachinaka in Ibaraki. The Tōhoku Shinkansen and

1495-558: Is the Tōshō-gū shrines erected to enshrine Tokugawa Ieyasu , or the many shrines dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane , like Kitano Tenman-gū . Often the shrines which were most significant historically do not lie in a former center of power like Kyoto , Nara , or Kamakura . For example, Ise Grand Shrine , the Imperial household 's family shrine, is in Mie prefecture . Izumo-taisha , one of

1560-481: Is the kunyomi of -gū ( 宮 ) and indicates a shrine enshrining a special kami or a member of the Imperial household like the Empress, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition. During the period of state regulation, many -miya names were changed to jinja . A taisha ( 大社 ) (the characters are also read ōyashiro ) is literally a "great shrine" that was classified as such under

1625-465: Is used to physically protect the shintai and to hide it from sight. Often the opening of a new shrine will require the ritual division of a kami and the transferring of one of the two resulting spirits to the new location, where it will animate the shintai . This process is called kanjō , and the divided spirits bunrei ( 分霊 , literally: "divided spirit") , go-bunrei ( 御分霊 ) , or wakemitama ( 分霊 ) . This process of propagation, described by

1690-614: The Engi-shiki (延喜式, literally: "Procedures of the Engi Era") was promulgated in fifty volumes. This, the first formal codification of Shinto rites and Norito (liturgies and prayers) to survive, became the basis for all subsequent Shinto liturgical practice and efforts. In addition to the first ten volumes of this fifty volume work, which concerned worship and the Department of Worship , sections in subsequent volumes addressing

1755-714: The Japanese Middle Ages , shrines started being called with the name gongen ( 権現 ) , a term of Buddhist origin. For example, in Eastern Japan there are still many Hakusan shrines where the shrine itself is called gongen . Because it represents the application of Buddhist terminology to Shinto kami , its use was legally abolished by the Meiji government with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order ( 神仏判然令 , Shin-butsu Hanzenrei ) , and shrines began to be called jinja . Ancestors are kami to be worshipped. Yayoi period village councils sought

1820-563: The Kami and Buddhas Separation Order ( 神仏判然令 , Shinbutsu Hanzenrei ) . This event triggered the haibutsu kishaku , a violent anti-Buddhist movement which in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate and during the Meiji Restoration caused the forcible closure of thousands of Buddhist temples, the confiscation of their land, the forced return to lay life of monks, and the destruction of books, statues and other Buddhist property. Until

1885-461: The Man'yōshū . Sha ( 社 ) itself was not an initially secular term. In Chinese it alone historically could refer to Tudigong , or soil gods, a kind of tutelary deity seen as subordinate to City Gods . Such deities are also often called ( 社神 ; shèshén ), or the same characters in the reverse order. Its Kunyomi reading Yashiro ( 社 ) is a generic term for shinto shrine like jinja . It

1950-504: The Meiji restoration , Mibu town and the villages of Inaba and Minami-Inukai were created within Shimotsuga District on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Inaba merged with Mibu on November 3, 1954 followed by Minami-Inukai on July 28, 1955. Mibu has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 16 members. Mibu contributes one member to

2015-549: The Ministry of Ceremonies (治部省) and the Ministry of the Imperial Household (宮内省) regulated Shinto worship and contained liturgical rites and regulation. In 1970, Felicia Gressitt Brock published a two-volume annotated English language translation of the first ten volumes with an introduction entitled Engi-shiki; procedures of the Engi Era . The arrival of Buddhism in Japan in around the sixth century introduced

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2080-508: The Nikkō Kaidō (日光街道, part of the major road connecting Nikkō with Edo ) and acquired lavish processions to worship Ieyasu. In the late 19th century, the Tokugawa shogunate fell and the new government established the prefectures . The prefectural capital was established in the city of Tochigi after the unification of Utsunomiya Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture in 1873. By 1884, however,

2145-533: The 'Daijōkan' banned the application of Buddhist terminology such as gongen to Japanese kami and the veneration of Buddhist statues in shrines. The third stage consisted of the prohibition against applying the Buddhist term Daibosatsu (Great Bodhisattva ) to the syncretic kami Hachiman at the Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū and Usa Hachiman-gū shrines. In the fourth and final stage, all

2210-849: The Irohazaka, a road with dozens of switchbacks. In addition, 400-year-old Japanese Cedars (about 13,000 in total) line the famous Cedar Avenue of Nikkō for roughly 35 km, making it the longest tree-lined avenue in the world. A more recent and modern attraction is the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit race course, which hosts the only IndyCar race outside the United States. The track also hosts many other race events including Formula One and motorcycle races as well as festivals and fireworks events. Tochigi has many traditional festivals and events such as Nikkō Tōshō-gū's 1000 Samurai Procession and Horseback Archery Festival, and

2275-528: The JR Utsunomiya Line are the main railways running north and south in Tochigi. Shinkansen runs from Tokyo Station to Oyama in south Tochigi in 43 minutes. Utsunomiya can be reached by rail in as little as 48 minutes, and many parts of Tochigi are within commuting range of central Tokyo. To the east and west, the Mito and Ryōmō Lines connect Tochigi to Ibaraki and Gunma. Freight is served by

2340-475: The Japanese words for "mountain" and "forest", which can also mean "shrine". Many shrines have on their grounds one of the original great yorishiro : a big tree, surrounded by a sacred rope called shimenawa ( 標縄・注連縄・七五三縄 ) . The first buildings at places dedicated to worship were hut-like structures built to house some yorishiro . A trace of this origin can be found in the term hokura ( 神庫 ) , "deity storehouse", which evolved into hokora (written with

2405-574: The Tochigi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Tochigi 4th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan . The economy of Mibu is heavily dependent on agriculture; however, the town is increasingly becoming a commuter town for neighboring Utsunomiya. [REDACTED] Tobu Railway – Tobu Utsunomiya Line Tochigi Prefecture Tochigi Prefecture ( 栃木県 , Tochigi-ken )

2470-645: The Utsunomiya Freight Terminal. Fukushima Airport is approximately an hour's drive from Utsunomiya on the Tōhoku Expressway . International and national air transportation is through Narita International Airport to the east of Tokyo, approximately three hours by vehicle from Utsunomiya. 36°31′N 139°49′E  /  36.517°N 139.817°E  / 36.517; 139.817 Shinto shrine A Shinto shrine ( 神社 , jinja , archaic: shinsha , meaning: "kami shrine")

2535-540: The advice of ancestors and other kami , and developed instruments, yorishiro ( 依り代 ) , to evoke them. Yoshishiro means "approach substitute" and were conceived to attract the kami to allow them physical space, thus making kami accessible to human beings. Village council sessions were held in quiet spots in the mountains or in forests near great trees or other natural objects that served as yorishiro . These sacred places and their yorishiro gradually evolved into today's shrines, whose origins can be still seen in

2600-720: The capital was transferred to Utsunomiya. In March 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster , levels of radioactivity in Utsunomiya were 33 times higher than normal. The chief city of Utsunomiya is famous for its many gyoza specialist shops. Also located in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture has one of the largest shopping malls in the North Kantō region, Bell Mall . Fourteen cities are located in Tochigi Prefecture: These are

2665-603: The center of the prefecture is the largest open plain in the Kantō region. Shirane (2,578 metres (8,458 ft)), Nantai (2,484 metres (8,150 ft)) and Nasudake (1,917 metres (6,289 ft)) mountain are in the northern part of the area. Kinugawa, Nakagawa, and Watarase River originate in this region, which flow across the Kanto plain before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Tochigi is the 20th largest prefecture in Japan with

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2730-436: The city of Tochigi's Autumn Festival where doll floats are pulled around the city once every five years. Other attractions include: Traversing the prefecture along the north–south axis and connecting to the rest of the country are the Tōhoku Expressway and the new and old Route 4 . From east to west spans Route 50 , connecting southern Tochigi with Ibaraki and Gunma Prefectures. Also connecting Tochigi, Gunma, and Ibaraki

2795-430: The concept of a permanent shrine. A great number of Buddhist temples were built next to existing shrines in mixed complexes called jingū-ji ( 神宮寺 , literally: "shrine temple") to help priesthood deal with local kami , making those shrines permanent. Some time in their evolution, the word miya ( 宮 ) , meaning "palace", came into use indicating that shrines had by then become the imposing structures of today. Once

2860-466: The defrocked bettō and shasō were told to become "shrine priests" ( kannushi ) and return to their shrines. Monks of the Nichiren sect were told not to refer to some deities as kami . After a short period in which it enjoyed popular favor, the process of separation of Buddhas and kami however stalled and is still only partially completed. To this day, almost all Buddhist temples in Japan have

2925-617: The end of Edo period , local kami beliefs and Buddhism were intimately connected in what was called shinbutsu shūgō (神仏習合), up to the point where even the same buildings were used as both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. After the law, the two would be forcibly separated. This was done in several stages. At first an order issued by the Jingijimuka in April 1868 ordered the defrocking of shasō and bettō (shrine monks performing Buddhist rites at Shinto shrines). A few days later,

2990-495: The first permanent shrines were built, Shinto revealed a strong tendency to resist architectural change, a tendency which manifested itself in the so-called shikinen sengū-sai ( 式年遷宮祭 ) , the tradition of rebuilding shrines faithfully at regular intervals adhering strictly to their original design. This custom is the reason ancient styles have been replicated throughout the centuries to the present day, remaining more or less intact. Ise Grand Shrine , still rebuilt every 20 years,

3055-455: The first shrines were huts built to house some yorishiro . -gū ( 宮 ) indicates a shrine enshrining an imperial prince, but there are many examples in which it is used simply as a tradition. The word gū ( 宮 ) often found at the end of names of shrines such as Hachimangu , Tenmangū , or Jingu ( 神宮 ) comes from the Chinese ( 宮 ; gong ) meaning palace or a temple to

3120-402: The first shrines were simply sacred groves or forests where kami were present. Hokora / hokura ( 神庫 ) is an extremely small shrine of the kind one finds for example along country roads. The term Hokora ( 祠 ) , believed to have been one of the first Japanese words for Shinto shrine, evolved from hokura ( 神庫 ) , literally meaning "kami repository", a fact that seems to indicate that

3185-430: The first, and are still among the most important, shintai , and are worshiped at several famous shrines. A mountain believed to house a kami , as for example Mount Fuji or Mount Miwa , is called a shintai-zan ( 神体山 ) . In the case of a man-made shintai , a kami must be invited to reside in it. The founding of a new shrine requires the presence of either a pre-existing, naturally occurring shintai (for example

3250-453: The hereditary succession continues to present day. The Unicode character representing a Shinto shrine (for example, on maps ) is U+26E9 ⛩ SHINTO SHRINE . Jinja ( 神社 ) is the most general name for shrine. Any place that owns a honden ( 本殿 ) is a jinja . These two characters used to be read either "kamu-tsu-yashiro" or "mori" in kunyomi , both meaning "kami grove". Both readings can be found for example in

3315-535: The highest market share in Japan: (The 2004 industrial analysis report published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) The annual gross agricultural output in Tochigi is about 274 billion yen. Rice, vegetables, and livestock are produced in the region. Tochigi is also known for strawberries, Chinese chives, and Japanese pears sold throughout Japan and exported to other countries. Approximately 55% of Tochigi

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3380-425: The inland prefectures of the northern part of the Kantō region, Tochigi is contiguous with Ibaraki, Gunma, Saitama, and Fukushima Prefectures. The climate of Tochigi may be classified as a humid temperate zone with broad variations in temperature. Winters are arid with dry winds, while summers are humid with frequent thunderstorms. The population of Tochigi as of November 2010 is approximately 2,005,096. Located in

3445-644: The land area of the town is covered in rice paddy. Tochigi Prefecture Mibu has a Humid continental climate (Köppen Cfa ) characterized by warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Mibu is 13.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1385 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.4 °C. Per Japanese census data,

3510-573: The number of shrines at 79,467, mostly affiliated with the Association of Shinto Shrines ( 神社本庁 ) . Some shrines, such as the Yasukuni Shrine , are totally independent of any outside authority. The number of Shinto shrines in Japan is estimated to be around 100,000. Since ancient times, the Shake (社家) families dominated Shinto shrines through hereditary positions, and at some shrines

3575-537: The old system of shrine ranking, the shakaku ( 社格 ) , abolished in 1946. Many shrines carrying that shōgō adopted it only after the war. Chinjusha ( 鎮守社•鎮社 , or tutelary shrine ) comes from Chinju written as 鎮守 or sometimes just 鎮. meaning Guardian, and Sha ( 社 ) Setsumatsusha ( 摂末社 ) is a combination of two words Sessha ( 摂社 , auxiliary shrine ) and massha ( 末社 , undershrine ) . They are also called eda-miya ( 枝宮 , branch shrines ) which contains Miya ( 宮 ) During

3640-488: The oldest and most revered shrines in Japan, is in Shimane Prefecture . This is because their location is that of a traditionally important kami , and not that of temporal institutions. Some shrines exist only in one locality, while others are at the head of a network of branch shrines ( 分社 , bunsha ) . The spreading of a kami can be evoked by one or more of several different mechanisms. The typical one

3705-462: The palanquins which are carried on poles during festivals ( matsuri ), also enshrine kami and are therefore considered shrines. In 927 CE , the Engi-shiki ( 延喜式 , literally: "Procedures of the Engi Era") was promulgated. This work listed all of the 2,861 Shinto shrines existing at the time, and the 3,131 official-recognized and enshrined kami . In 1972, the Agency for Cultural Affairs placed

3770-460: The plains where people lived. Besides Ōmiwa Shrine, another important example is Mount Nantai , a phallus -shaped mountain in Nikko which constitutes Futarasan Shrine 's shintai . The name Nantai ( 男体 ) means "man's body". The mountain provides water to the rice paddies below and has the shape of the phallic stone rods found in pre-agricultural Jōmon sites. The first known Shinto shrine

3835-527: The population of Mibu has remained relatively steadily over the past 30 years. The remains of many burial mounds from the Kofun period can be found in Mibu. During the Edo period , the area was controlled by Mibu Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate . The jōkamachi which grew up around Mibu Castle was Mibu-shuku a post station on a branch the Nikkō Kaidō connecting Edo with the shrines at Nikkō . After

3900-506: The priests, in spite of this name, not as a division but as akin to the lighting of a candle from another already lit, leaves the original kami intact in its original place and therefore does not alter any of its properties. The resulting spirit has all the qualities of the original and is therefore "alive" and permanent. The process is used often—for example during Shinto festivals ( matsuri ) to animate temporary shrines called mikoshi . The transfer does not necessarily take place from

3965-480: The same characters 神庫) and is considered to be one of the first words for shrine. True shrines arose with the beginning of agriculture, when the need arose to attract kami to ensure good harvests. These were, however, just temporary structures built for a particular purpose, a tradition of which traces can be found in some rituals. Hints of the first shrines can still be found. Ōmiwa Shrine in Nara , for example, contains no sacred images or objects because it

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4030-588: The towns in each district : Located close to Tōkyō, Tochigi is home to many corporations and industrial zones, including the Kiyohara Industrial Complex , one of the largest inland industrial complexes in the country. Industrial manufacturing accounts for 36.6% of the prefecture's total output. Vehicle parts and accessories are the primary products, followed by vehicles, radios and televisions, pharmaceuticals, and wireless communication equipment. Below are goods manufactured in Tochigi with

4095-535: Was abolished in 1871, but many shake families still continue hereditary succession until present day and some were appointed hereditary nobility ( Kazoku ) after the Meiji Restoration . Some of the most well-known shake families include: Those worshiped at a shrine are generally Shinto kami , but sometimes they can be Buddhist or Taoist deities, as well as others not generally considered to belong to Shinto. Some shrines were established to worship living people or figures from myths and legends . An example

4160-519: Was built in roughly 478. In 905 CE, Emperor Daigo ordered a compilation of Shinto rites and rules. Previous attempts at codification are known to have taken place, but, neither the Konin nor the Jogan Gishiki survive. Initially under the direction of Fujiwara no Tokihira , the project stalled at his death in April 909. Fujiwara no Tadahira , his brother, took charge and in 912 and in 927

4225-624: Was re-established in the prefecture, holding over 3,000 students by the 16th century. Saint Francis Xavier introduced Ashikaga to the world as the best university in Japan. In the early 17th century, Japan was unified under the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu . After his death, the Nikko Tōshō-gū shrine was built in Nikkō in 1617 on what the shōguns thought of as holy ground to protect and worship Ieyasu. Its establishment brought Nikkō to national attention. Ieyasu's successors as Tokugawa shogun developed

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