Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine

Quick facts

Address

1-7-1 Shinozaki, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka

Spiritual entities

Empress Jingu (神功皇后) · Hachiman (八幡神)

About this place

Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine is in Kokura, Kitakyushu. In the ninth year of Emperor Chuai, Empress Jingu attacked the three Han and, returning in triumph, gave birth at Umi in Chikuzen to the prince who became Emperor Ojin. In 730 a division of the deity was brought from Usa Hachimangu and the shrine was renamed Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine. In 870, when Onakatomi no Kunio went down to the Munakata shrine in Tsukushi as an imperial envoy, he also made offerings here. A ridge tag of the third month of 1347 reads that the shogun Takauji had it built, and one of the third month of 1617 names Hosokawa Tadaoki, lord of the two Bungo provinces, as the great patron of the building of the main hall. Prayers here cover safe birth, first shrine visits and the seven-five-three, the warding off of misfortune and sixtieth-birthday celebrations — the safety of children and the turning points of a life — as well as traffic safety, the warding of ill directions, prosperity in business, victory and success in examinations. In the precinct, the strength stone concerns advancement in life, and the snake’s pillow stone concerns the fulfilment of love and the stopping of a child’s night crying.

Origin and history

In the ninth year of Emperor Chuai, Empress Jingu attacked the three Han and, returning in triumph, gave birth at Umi in Chikuzen to the prince who became Emperor Ojin.

In 730 a division of the deity was brought from Usa Hachimangu and the shrine was renamed Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine. In 870, when Onakatomi no Kunio went down to the Munakata shrine as an imperial envoy, he also made offerings here.

A ridge tag of the third month of 1347 reads that the shogun Takauji had it built, and one of 1617 names Hosokawa Tadaoki as the great patron of the main hall.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotLove & RomanceCareer & WorkProtection & SafetyFertility & Children

  The strength stone and the snake’s pillow stone

  In the precinct, the strength stone concerns advancement in life, and the snake’s pillow stone the fulfilment of love and the stopping of a child’s night crying.

  documented history

• Origin

  From a birth at Umi

  Empress Jingu, returning in triumph, gave birth at Umi in Chikuzen to the prince who became Emperor Ojin.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  The division brought in 730

  In 730 a division of the deity was brought from Usa Hachimangu and the shrine was renamed Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine.

  documented history

This shrine’s account begins with something that happened somewhere else. Empress Jingu, returning in triumph, gave birth at Umi in Chikuzen — and Umi is the town of Umi Hachimangu on this same list, the place that took its name from that delivery. The story of where a child was born opens the first line of a shrine more than a hundred kilometres away.

Two stones stand in the precinct, and each carries a different prayer. The strength stone is for advancement in life. The snake’s pillow stone is for the fulfilment of love, and for stopping a child’s night crying. Objects carrying one named benefit recur across this list, but the stopping of night crying appears only here.

The recorded patronage is specific. In 870 an imperial envoy on his way to the Munakata shrine left offerings here as well. A ridge tag of the third month of 1347 records that the shogun Takauji had the shrine built, and one of 1617 names Hosokawa Tadaoki as its great patron.

The prayers divide into the turning points of a life — safe birth, first visits, the seven-five-three, warding off misfortune, the sixtieth birthday — and protection from harm: traffic safety, ill directions, business, victory and examinations.

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. 御由緒 — Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)
2. 御神徳 — Shinozaki Hachiman Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)