Yagumo Jinja (八雲神社)

Yagumo Jinja (八雲神社)

There is a Shinto shrine called Yagumo Jinja (八雲神社) in the Nango District of Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, enshrining the god of Susanoo-no-Mikoto (素盞嗚尊).  It is unclear when the shrine was founded.  A local legend explains, as the area developed, the residents enshrined the Ubusunagami which became the origin of the shrine.

According to the sign placed by the shrine, many using the Tokaido Route visited the shrine to wish for the safety of their travel when the Edo shogunate assigned the nearby Chayamachi (茶屋町) as a shukuba (post station) of the route during the Shoho (1644 ~ 1648) and Keian (1648 ~ 1652) eras.  However, the website of the Yokohama National Highway Office explains there used to be a large tateba in Nango.  Tateba were resting places between shukuba and were often in areas relatively close to shukuba or in scenic areas.  Since Nango was famous for being able to see Mount Fuji on the left when heading from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto along the route, many tea stores called chaya (茶屋), many of them two stories high, were built which is where the name Chayamachi came from (machi [町] means town).

Many visiting the Oyama Afuri Shrine (大山阿夫利神社) also dropped by to pray from a distance.  Because of this, Yagumo Jinja was also called Sekisonzan (石尊山).

Many high-class officials also visited the shrine since the area became a shogunal demesne in 1762 and because of the shooting field close by.

Records show the shrine building was rebuilt in 1831 by Shigeta Hachirozaemon (重田八郎左衛門), the head of the area at the time, and was renovated in January 1877.  After the shrine burned down in a fire in December 1887, the honden was rebuilt in 1888, and the haiden in July 1900.  In 1923, the shrine was heavily damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake leaving just the honden.  The shrine building was recovered in March 1933.  In July 2001, the roof was repaired.