Mihashira Shrine

Quick facts

Address

323-1 Takahata, Mitsuhashimachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka

About this place

Mihashira Shrine is in Yanagawa, Fukuoka. Its deities are three: Tachibana Muneshige, first lord of the Yanagawa domain; his father-in-law Bekki Dosetsu; and Muneshige’s wife Ginchiyo. Its origin is 1783, when the seventh lord Tachibana Akiyuki built a shrine within the grounds of Chokyu-ji in the third bailey of Yanagawa Castle and enshrined Dosetsu there. In 1820 it was moved near Hiyoshi Shrine and called the Sole Shrine, and from the time it was merged into the Baigaku shrine it was renamed Mihashira-gu. In 1825 the ninth lord Tachibana Akikata, thinking it too small for enshrining the founder of the domain, moved it to its present site. It is held to be a shrine of victory, fulfilment and comeback; Muneshige is called the deity of comeback because after Sekigahara he alone among many lords was able to return to his domain.

Origin and history

Its origin is 1783, when the seventh lord Tachibana Akiyuki built a shrine within the grounds of Chokyu-ji in the third bailey of Yanagawa Castle and enshrined Dosetsu there.

In 1820 it was moved near Hiyoshi Shrine and called the Sole Shrine, and from the time it was merged into the Baigaku shrine it was renamed Mihashira-gu. In 1825 the ninth lord Tachibana Akikata, thinking it too small for enshrining the founder of the domain, moved it to its present site.

The deities are Tachibana Muneshige, Bekki Dosetsu and Ginchiyo. It is held to be a shrine of victory, fulfilment and comeback.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotCareer & WorkWish Fulfillment

  The deity of comeback

  It is a shrine of victory, fulfilment and comeback; Muneshige is called the deity of comeback for regaining his domain after Sekigahara when no other lord did.

  documented history

• Origin

  One household, three deities

  The deities are Tachibana Muneshige, first lord of Yanagawa; his father-in-law Bekki Dosetsu; and his wife Ginchiyo.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Moved for being too small

  In 1825 the ninth lord, thinking it too small for enshrining the founder of the domain, moved it to its present site.

  documented history

This shrine enshrines a deity of comeback, and the reason is one career. After Sekigahara, Muneshige alone among many lords was able to return to his domain — a man who lost everything and got it back, and that single fact is the content of the devotion. Nothing else on this list is built on recovery from ruin.

The three enshrined here are one household: the first lord of Yanagawa, his father-in-law, and his wife Ginchiyo. A wife enshrined in her own right beside two commanders is uncommon here. At Domyoji Tenmangu in Osaka, Michizane’s aunt Kakujuni is likewise a deity in her own right.

The reason the shrine moved is unusual too. In 1825 the ninth lord thought it too small for enshrining the founder of the domain, and moved it. Several shrines on this list were moved to make room for castles; this is the only one that says it moved because it was not big enough.

The beginning was 1783, when the seventh lord built a shrine in the castle’s third bailey for Dosetsu alone. It took about forty years to become three.

Related guides

• How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 三柱神社について — Mihashira Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)