Washio Atago Shrine

Quick facts

Address

2-7-1 Atago, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka

Spiritual entities

Homusubi no Mikoto (火産霊命) · Izanagi (伊邪那岐命) · Izanami (伊邪那美命)

About this place

Washio Atago Shrine is in Nishi-ku, Fukuoka. Its deities are Izanagi, Izanami, Homusubi and Ame no Oshihomimi. It was founded some nineteen hundred years ago, beginning when Izanagi and Ame no Oshihomimi were enshrined in the reign of Emperor Keiko. In 1634 Kuroda Tadayuki, lord of the Fukuoka domain, brought Homusubi, the deity of fire, and Izanami from the Atago Gongen in Kyoto and enshrined them here, and the mountain was renamed Atago. In 1901 Washio Shrine and Atago Shrine became one and came to be called Washio Atago Shrine. It is widely revered as a deity that holds back fire.

Origin and history

It was founded some nineteen hundred years ago, beginning when Izanagi and Ame no Oshihomimi were enshrined in the reign of Emperor Keiko.

In 1634 Kuroda Tadayuki, lord of the Fukuoka domain, brought Homusubi, the deity of fire, and Izanami from the Atago Gongen in Kyoto and enshrined them here, and the mountain was renamed Atago.

In 1901 Washio Shrine and Atago Shrine became one and came to be called Washio Atago Shrine. It is widely revered as a deity that holds back fire.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  The merger of 1901

  In 1901 Washio Shrine and Atago Shrine became one and came to be called Washio Atago Shrine.

  documented history

• Origin

  A fire deity brought from Kyoto

  In 1634 Kuroda Tadayuki brought Homusubi, the deity of fire, and Izanami from the Atago Gongen in Kyoto, and the mountain was renamed Atago.

  documented history

• Power spot

  A deity that holds back fire

  It is widely revered as a deity that holds back fire.

  documented history

This shrine’s name is two shrines added together. In 1901 Washio Shrine and Atago Shrine became one and came to be called Washio Atago Shrine — with the year of the joining written down. Daizenji Tamataregu, also in Fukuoka, likewise carries two names, but there the temple’s name survived its own abolition. One compound name made by joining, one left behind by a destruction.

The deities here were added to partway through. It began with Izanagi and Ame no Oshihomimi in the reign of Emperor Keiko; in 1634 Kuroda Tadayuki brought Homusubi, the deity of fire, and Izanami from the Atago Gongen in Kyoto. The mountain was renamed Atago at the same time. The Kyoto Atago is the head of the group of three great Atago shrines, and bringing its deity here is what makes this one of them.

Kuroda Tadayuki’s name also appears at Sakurai Shrine in the same prefecture, whose hall he founded in 1632 — two years apart, two shrines.

It is widely revered as a deity that holds back fire, but this site has no tag for the warding of fire, so this page carries none.

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. 鷲尾愛宕神社について — Washio Atago Shrine (accessed 2026-08-15)