Osaki Hachimangu UC
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| Osaki Hachimangu (photo courtesy of the shrine) |
Address: 4-6-1 Hachiman, Aoba-ku,
Sendai-shi, Miyagi 980-0871
Tel/Information: 022-234-3606
How to get there: JR Senzan Line
from Sendai Station to Kunimi Station, then 15 minutes on foot.
Enshrined kami: Hachiman
(identified with Emperor Ojin).
Prayers offered: Protection against
danger, safe childbirth, and good fortune.
Best time to go: The end of May,
when an annual azalea (satsuki) festival is held.
Important physical features: Osaki
Hachimangu is constructed in the gongen-zukuri style, which was one of the most
popular during the Muromachi to Edo periods. It is said to be the oldest extant
shrine built in the style, which is also known as yatsumune-zukuri. It features
a honden and haiden linked by an ainoma under a complex roof structure. The
roof is an irimoya-zukuri style with large chidorihafu and karahafu in the
center of the step canopy. The roof is covered in wood-bark shingles, and
everything above the horizontal beams, from the top of the pillars to the top
of the triangular dormers, is polychromed and heavily ornamented in gold-plated
copper. From the horizontal tie beams down, the exterior is painted in black
lacquer, presenting a formal and imposing appearance.
The
interior is also primarily decorated in black lacquer with extensive
polychroming and gold ornamentation above the horizontal tie beams. The large
partitions inside the haiden are in gold leaf with paintings of lions by Sakuma
Sakyo of the Kano school of painters. Some of the carvings of plants, animals
and dragons are attributed to Hidari Jingoro, the legendary carver who worked
on Nikko Toshogu. In fact, Osaki Hachimangu is virtually a prototype of the
Toshogu style. The main difference between this style and the Toshogu is that
the Daimyo, Date Masamune, employed carpenters working in the wayo, or Japanese
style, of the Shitennoji-ryu. They included Osakabe Saemon Kunitsugu, the
Umemura family, and others who were formerly in the employ of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi. The wayo style featured bracket complexes (tokyo) that were less
ornate and placed on top of pillars (as opposed to being used on the tie beams
between the pillars as well). The wayo style uses frog-leg struts (kaerumata)
between the pillars instead. Also, brackets not used under the veranda here as
they are in Toshogu shrines. Still, this comparatively simple style could be
used to great effect. However the Tokugawa—especially under the third shogun,
Iemitsu—came to favor the more elaborate and elegant zenshuyo style. As Osaki
Hachimangu clearly shows, both styles could be opulently decorated. Many of the
same sculptors and painters (for example Jingoro and the Kano family) were used
on buildings throughout the country, and their work came to signify the wealth
and power of their patrons.
In
contrast to the shrine itself is the nagatoko gate (a warihaiden, or “split
haiden”) that leads to the grounds in front of the building. It is a narrow
structure, nine bays long, of a very different style than the main shrine.
Thought to be from the same period, it is made of unpainted wood and is relatively
unadorned, with open-sided rooms on both sides of a central entrance that
sports a karahafu.
Important spiritual features:
Shrine tradition states that the kami of Osaki Hachimangu was originally
enshrined as Chinjufu Hachiman in Mizusawa in present-day Iwate Prefecture by
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811), when he was sent by Emperor Kanmu to
subjugate the northern tribes. Hachiman was already considered a protector
deity of Buddhism (chinju) having been established in 749 as guardian of
Todaiji in Nara. Hachiman shrines were founded close to the kokubunji
(provincial temples). They were part of a system of one temple in every
province, established by Emperor Shomu in 741. The Mutsu Kokubunji (located
close to Sendai Station) was the northernmost temple of the group. It was
destroyed in the twelfth century, but Date Masamune partly restored it at
around the same time that he built Osaki Hachimangu.
Hachiman
was enshrined in most of eastern Japan from the eleventh century onward by the
Minamoto clan, who worshipped the kami as a deity who protected them in battle.
The kami was also considered to be Emperor Ojin and therefore an ancestor—since
the Minamoto were themselves of imperial blood. When Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and
his son Yoshiie were sent to the northeastern provinces to quell a rebellion by
the Abe clan in the early eleventh century, they enshrined Hachiman in many
places along the way. After their victory the Minamoto withdrew to Kamakura,
where they established a small shrine that later became Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.
The kami was also enshrined in several places in Mutsu Province around the town
of Tajiri in present-day Osaki City. It may be that one of the shrines was
patronized by the Osaki clan, retainers of the Minamoto, who rebuilt the shrine
building in 1361 and renamed it Osaki Hachiman. It was later moved to its
present location. In other words, exactly from which Hachiman shrine Osaki
Hachimangu originates is less than certain. For details on the kami Hachiman,
please see the entries for Usa Jingu, Iwashimizu Hachimangu, and Tsurugaoka
Hachimangu in "Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion" published by University of Hawaii Press.
Description: The Osaki were only
one of several powerful clans in the area of present-day Sendai. The region
eventually came under the influence of the Date clan that was founded by Isa
Tomomune from Ibaraki—a descendant of the Fujiwara. He was a retainer of
Minamoto no Yoritomo, who awarded him land in the Date district of Mutsu in
return for service against the Taira in the Genpei War (1180–85). In 1584 the
clan came under the control of Date Masamune, a one-eyed hothead who narrowly
escaped leading them into total annihilation. Nicknamed “dokuganryu” (“one-eyed
dragon”) later in life, he lost sight in his right eye at a young age due to
smallpox and is said to have ripped it out with his own hands because of a
slight. He became a clever and ruthless general, taking revenge against
hundreds of men, women, and children of the clan that killed his father. He
also defeated his southern neighbors, the Ashina clan, and took over their
territory of Aizu. Though fiercely independent, he nevertheless came under the
sway of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was forced to fight for him in 1590 when
Hideyoshi seized Odawara Castle. After the Battle, Hideyoshi forced Date to
give up the territory and accept relocation to Iwadeyama in present-day Miyagi
Prefecture. Date also fought in Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea, though after his
return he was pressured into moving his domain to Shikoku. Only the
intervention of Tokugawa Ieyasu saved him from this fate. He thus became a strong
ally of Ieyasu and helped him in his drive to control the country. Ieyasu
rewarded Date with the Sendai domain, which encompassed all of present-day
Miyagi and parts of neighboring prefectures. He moved the majority of the clan
and vassals, some fifty thousand people, further down the coast from Iwadeyama
and established the city of Sendai around 1604. He also brought the Osaki
Hachiman shrine to Sendai and reestablished it in its current location in 1607.
Though ruthless in battle he was by all accounts an excellent manager, and the
area became one of the strongest domains under the Tokugawa. Today Sendai is a
major city with a population of one million inhabitants.
The
shrine was built on the northwest side of Sendai Castle, also built by Date. It
is a testament to his power that he was able to gather some of the finest
craftsmen in the country to his northern fishing village, at a time when major
battles for control of the country were being fought and many new castles,
temples, and shrines were being built. From the late sixteenth to early
seventeenth centuries, about a hundred major castles were built, that employed
tens of thousands of workers each, including sculptors, painters, metalworkers,
and stonemasons of the highest quality. Unfortunately, most of the castles have
since burned down or were destroyed by the Meiji government. Sendai Castle
(also called Aoba-jo) was partly dismantled by the Meiji government and the
rest lost to bombing in World War II. But happily Osaki Hachimangu has
survived, as have the ramparts of the castle. Recent excavations have shown
that they incorporated some of the finest engineering techniques of the period.
The palisades and one of the few areas of virgin forest adjacent to them are
located a little less than half a mile southeast of the shrine. The mausoleum
of Date, together with those of his son and grandson (also destroyed during the
war), has been recreated close to the southeast of the castle grounds. These
highly ornate structures reflect the same aesthetic found at Osaki Hachimangu.
In fact, the Japanese term “date,” came to mean a style of ornate or even gaudy
beauty. The word, often translated as “dandy,” also denoted an outlandish man
and may have originated as a description of Masamune and his lifestyle. Nevertheless,
he has left us with a marvelous structure that is today designated a National
Treasure. About a mile to the northeast lies Matsushima Bay, known as one of
the “Three Views of Japan,” because of its scenic beauty. The bay, with its
pine-covered coastline, is home to many fantastically shaped islands of stone.
Along the bay stands the Buddhist temple Zuiganji, founded in 828 and rebuilt
by Date in 1609.
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| Bonfire of the Matsutaki Matsuri (photo courtesy of the shrine) |
Festival: Matsutaki Matsuri, 14
January. A huge sacred bonfire (goshinka) is lit, using all the New Year’s
decorations deposited at the shrine. A procession of male participants,
stripped to the waist and wearing white shorts and headbands, circle close to
the fire (hadakamairi). The custom was begun by saké brewers in the Edo period
to pray for protection of the winter brew.
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