Ikukunitama Shrine

The shrine's beginning is placed three years before the first year of the imperial era, about 2,700 years ago, when Emperor Jimmu arrived at Naniwazu from Kyushu and enshrined the deities Ikushima and Tarushima on Ishiyamazaki, then standing in Osaka Bay, the area that includes the present Osaka Castle. In the medieval period Ishiyama Honganji was built inside the sacred ground, and it burned down when fire broke out within the temple after the Ishiyama war against Nobunaga. In 1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose that same ground for Osaka Castle, so Ikukunitama Shrine was moved to its present site. After the Meiji Restoration it was ranked a kanpei taisha, a shrine that received offerings from the imperial court, and revered as one of the great shrines of the country, but it burned in the Great Fire of the South in 1912 and was rebuilt with national funds in 1914. It was reduced to ashes in the first great Osaka air raid of 1945 and rebuilt in 1950 by the sincerity of the city's people, even under occupation. It collapsed in the Jane Typhoon the following year, 1951, and again, with citizens leading the work, was rebuilt in 1956.

Translated from the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City tourist listings (観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).