Tsurumi Shrine (Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture)

Date of visit: 2010/02/07
Address: 1-14-1 Tsurumi-chuo, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 230-0051
Deities: Isotakeru-no-Mikoto, Susanoo-no-Mikoto

Although the date of foundation is unknown, shrine tradition states it was founded during the era of Emperor Suiko (593–628), and it was formerly known as Sugiyama Daimyojin (Sugiyama Shrine).
It is one of the Sugiyama Shrines whose sphere of belief is distributed along the Tsurumi River basin in Yokohama and Kawasaki cities, and it is also considered one of the candidate sites for the 'Sugiyama Shrine' listed in the Engishiki Jinmyocho under Tsuzuki District.
There are many candidate sites for the Shikinaisha 'Sugiyama Shrine,' but some theories suggest its validity is weak because the shrine's location originally belonged to Tachibana District, not Tsuzuki District.

The main hall takes the form of a joint shrine for Sugiyama Daimyojin (Isotakeru-no-Mikoto) and Tenno-gu (Susanoo-no-Mikoto, formerly Gozu Tenno).
Renamed Tsurumi Shrine in 1920.

The 'Tsurumi Shrine Great Mikoshi (Great Mikoshi of the Long-Handled Sickle)' preserved in the Tenno-gu joint shrine is said to have been washed ashore at Tenno-gawara on the Tsurumi River (near the current Shiomi Bridge) in the early Edo period (around 1650–1670) and retrieved by local residents (of the former Tsurumi Village) using long-handled sickles for cutting thatch, then dedicated to this shrine.
This mikoshi is said to have belonged to the Tenno-sha (current Ogura Shrine in Ogura, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City) located upstream on the Tsurumi River from this shrine, and was accidentally washed away when it was being washed in the Tsurumi River during a festival.
Because of this, the shrine was also called 'Sugiyama Myojin Gozu Tenno Joint Shrine'.

Also, the shrine had a sacred zelkova tree said to have been planted by the 4th Kamakura Shogun, Fujiwara no Yoritsune, when he visited in 1241, but it withered and was cut down in 1962.
Numerous ritual artifacts, thought to date from when Fujiwara no Yoritsune planted the tree, have been excavated from its roots.

When Japan's first railway connecting Shimbashi and Yokohama opened in 1872, the shrine's grounds were significantly reduced to lay the tracks.
At this time, the Fujizuka (a sub-shrine of this shrine, Sengen-sha) that was located on the current tracks was also reduced and relocated to its present site.

Furthermore, an excavation survey in 2008 confirmed that a shell mound (Tsurumi Shrine Precinct Shell Mound) remained in good condition in front of the main hall.
In addition to this, pottery and dwelling remains from the late Yayoi period to the Kofun period have also been excavated from the shrine grounds.

Precinct Shrines, etc.

※ Although there are no photos, in addition to the above, the precinct shrines 'Seimei-gu' and 'Jurojin' are enshrined.
Seimei-gu enshrines the two figures Yukio Mishima and Masakatsu Morita.
Established on the shrine grounds in 2010, the 40th anniversary of Yukio Mishima's death, due to his connection to a bar he used to frequent in Tsurumi.
'Seimei' is the name of the literary magazine of the Gakushuin Higher Course during the time Yukio Mishima was a student.
Among the deities, Masakatsu Morita is the person who committed seppuku with Yukio Mishima after calling for the Self-Defense Forces to rise up for constitutional amendment.