IwateShrines & TemplesOshu
Kokusekiji
It was known for the Somin Festival at the lunar new year, a wild all-night contest between naked men that ended after 2024.
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IwateShrines & TemplesMorioka
Oni no Tegata
The handprint an ogre is said to have left gave the prefecture its name. This is where the name Iwate comes from.
IwateShrines & Temples
IwateShrines & Temples
MiyagiShrines & TemplesSendai
Osaki Hachimangu
The hall Date Masamune had built is a National Treasure, and is held to be the oldest surviving building in the black-lacquer-and-colour Momoyama style.
MiyagiShrines & Temples
MiyagiShrines & TemplesSendai
Mutsu Kokubunji Yakushido
The Yakushido rebuilt by Date Masamune still stands, carrying the line of the provincial temples into northern Japan.
MiyagiShrines & TemplesSendai
Rinnoji (Sendai)
One of the funerary temples of the Date family, known for its three-storey pagoda and its garden.
MiyagiShrines & TemplesSendai
Akiu Otaki Fudoson
It stands beside Akiu Otaki, one of the three great waterfalls of Japan.
MiyagiShrines & TemplesSendai
Sendai Daikannon
A Kannon figure a hundred metres tall. Worshippers climb up inside it.
MiyagiShrines & TemplesTome
Yokoyama Fudoson
It claims to be one of the three great Fudo halls of Japan. Its population of Japanese dace is a Natural Monument.
AkitaShrines & TemplesOga
Shinzan Jinja
The stage for the new year Saito festival and the namahage rite. At the Saito festival, large rice cakes roasted over the sacred fire are offered to the mountain deity. Mountain worship in northern Japan keeps forms that are proved with the body.
AkitaShrines & TemplesAkita
Koshio Jinja
An old shrine tied to legends of the subjugation of the Emishi. It preserves an early stratum of belief in Akita.
AkitaShrines & TemplesOga
Akagami Jinja Goshado
Beyond 999 stone steps, said to have been piled up by ogres in a single night, five halls stand in a row. One source of the namahage legend.
AkitaShrines & Temples
AkitaShrines & TemplesAkita
Taiheizan Miyoshi Shrine
The head shrine of Miyoshi Reijin, a deity of strength. Its Bonten festival on January 17 is known for a fierce scramble.
Yurihonjo
Shinzan Jinja
It preserves a striking rite in which worshippers parade in loincloths.
AkitaShrines & TemplesOga
Goshado Ishidan
Stone steps said to have been piled up by ogres in one night. The core of the namahage legend.
AkitaShrines & Temples
AkitaShrines & TemplesNoshiro
Hiyoshi Jinja (Noshiro)
The tutelary shrine of Noshiro, which preserves the Yaku-Tanabata rite.