Aso Shrine

Aso Shrine (, Aso-jinja) is a Shinto Shrine in Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Aso is one of the oldest shrines in Japan. This shrine holds several Important Cultural Properties, including Ichi-no-shinden , Ni-no-shinden , and Rōmon . The Aso family in charge of the shrine is said to have the second oldest recorded lineage in Japan after the Imperial family. The Aso Shrine was heavily damaged in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. The shrine's rōmon (tower gate) completely collapsed. The haiden (worshiping hall) also collapsed.

Aso Shrine at Mount Aso in Kyushu is traditionally held to have been a center of worship before the accession of Emperor Jinmu. The shikinaisha shrine complex at Ichinomiya in what is today Kumamoto Prefecture was said to have been established in 281 BC. The earliest records of the shrine are found in Chinese historical chronicles like the Zuisho-Wakoku-Den from the 7th century that states that the people of Aso held festivals every time Mt. Aso erupted to calm its wrath. Historical information of the shrine can also be found in the Nihon-Shoki, Nihon-Kiryaku, Shoku-Nihon-Kouki, Montoku-Jitsuroku, Sandai-Jitsuroku, and the Chikushi-no-Kuni-Fudoki-Itsubun. Records also link the founding of the shrine to the reign of Emperor Kōrei (, Kōrei-tennō). By the middle of the 11th century, the shrine was involved in national issues as they played out across Kyushu. During the ascendancy of the Kamakura shogunate, the Hōjō clan exercised a significant influence over the affairs of Aso Shrine.

The shrine is dedicated to the veneration of Takeiwatatsu-no-Mikoto , who was a grandson of Japan's first emperor and the brother of Emperor Suizei, the second monarch on the traditional list of emperors. In the same period that Emperor Jimmu was establishing his palace at Kashihara at the foot of Mount Unebi in Yamato province, Takeiwatasu was sent to Aso where he helped establish a number of agricultural communities; and later, he is said to have built a palace at Miyagi. The original location of the shrine is uncertain because it was destroyed and rebuilt many times in or near the crater of Aso-san. The shrine is said to be thousands of years old, however the

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