Sakurai Shrine

Quick facts

Address

4227 Shima Sakurai, Itoshima, Fukuoka

About this place

Sakurai Shrine is in Itoshima, Fukuoka. Its deities are Kannaobi, Onaobi and Yasomagatsuhi, together with Shimaoka Daimyojin and the eight tutelary deities. Between the first day and the dawn of the second day of the sixth month of 1610 a great thunderstorm arose, and in a single flash of lightning the rock cave opened and the divine spirit appeared. Kuroda Tadayuki, the second lord of the Fukuoka domain, sent retainers twice to enquire; because their answers did not differ in the least and there was a sign, he founded the present magnificent hall in 1632. The deities are described as those who govern calamity and those who govern purification.

Origin and history

Between the first day and the dawn of the second day of the sixth month of 1610 a great thunderstorm arose, and in a single flash of lightning the rock cave opened and the divine spirit appeared.

Kuroda Tadayuki, the second lord of the Fukuoka domain, sent retainers twice to enquire; because their answers did not differ in the least and there was a sign, he founded the present magnificent hall in 1632.

The deities are Kannaobi, Onaobi and Yasomagatsuhi, described as those who govern calamity and those who govern purification. Shimaoka Daimyojin and the eight tutelary deities are enshrined with them.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A storm opened the rock

  A great thunderstorm in the sixth month of 1610 opened the rock cave in a single flash of lightning, and the divine spirit appeared.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Verified twice before building

  Kuroda Tadayuki sent retainers twice to enquire; their answers did not differ in the least, and he founded the hall in 1632.

  documented history

• Power spot

  Calamity and purification

  Kannaobi, Onaobi and Yasomagatsuhi are described as those who govern calamity and those who govern purification.

  documented history

This shrine begins with weather, and with a date attached to it. Between the first day and the dawn of the second day of the sixth month of 1610 a great thunderstorm arose, and in a single flash of lightning the rock cave opened. A storm opened a door in the rock. Hoshida Myokengu in Osaka begins with a star that fell; natural events with dates on them turned into founding accounts recur here.

Somebody checked before building. Kuroda Tadayuki sent retainers twice to enquire, and because their answers did not differ in the least and there was a sign, he built the hall. Recording that the verification came first and the building second is unusual on this list.

The three deities are the same three as at Kego Shrine, also in Fukuoka: Kannaobi, Onaobi and Yasomagatsuhi, described here as those who govern calamity and those who govern purification. Calamity and its setting right, paired in two shrines, one in Itoshima and one at Tenjin.

The hall dates from 1632, and the shrine calls it magnificent. No benefit is stated on the page, so this page carries no tag for what may be prayed for.

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. 櫻井神社 — Sakurai Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)