Kiyosu Shrine Visit Report 2025 No.2 Hiyoshi Shrine “the head shrine that oversees the surrounding shrines”

December 10, 2025

Head Shrine of Kiyosu Castle Town — Visit to Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine

Date of visit: December 9, 2025

On December 9, 2025, I visited Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine in Kiyosu City, Aichi Prefecture. I stopped by on my way back from meeting a business partner in Kiyosu. It is about a 40-minute drive from Nagoya Station.

It was a quiet weekday afternoon. For most of the time I spent there, I was the only person taking photos. Thanks to that, I could take my time with every scene: the stone torii gate, the taiko bridge, the romon gate, stone lanterns, the Sanno Inari Shrine, the divine horse statue and more.

In this article I will walk through:

The shrine’s role as the head shrine for the old Kiyosu castle town
The main deities and the “too many gods” of the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines
The stone approach, flood stones and layers of local history
Four different animal messengers: monkeys, foxes, dogs and horses
The shrine’s en-musubi (matchmaking) side
Sengoku-period warlord episodes and a “gold coins” legend that comes with deep history

Head shrine of Kiyosu — overseeing the surrounding local shrines

Hiyoshi Shrine is not a small neighborhood shrine that protects just one block. It has long been revered as the general guardian and head shrine of the old Kiyosu castle town, and even today it functions as a spiritual hub for the wider area.

The information boards in the grounds explain that the chief priest of Hiyoshi Shrine also serves as priest for many other shrines in the region. In other words, this shrine acts as the head shrine overseeing the surrounding local shrines — a kind of spiritual hub in the local shrine network.

At the entrance of the approach you are greeted by a dignified stone torii gate and a shrine name pillar. Beyond them, stone lanterns, a stone taiko bridge and a wooden romon gate line up clearly along a straight axis. It looks exactly like the “front gate” of a castle town, and visually expresses the shrine’s role as the core guardian of the whole area.

Main deities

Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine enshrines three main deities. Together they cover almost every aspect of daily life: the land itself, sickness and disaster, agriculture, and the overall protection of people’s livelihoods.

Main deities and key kami (overview)

Type	Name (kami)	Reading	Main blessings	Notes
Main deity	Oonamuchi-no-Mikoto	Oonamuchi no Mikoto	Nation-building and people-building, medicine and healing, harmony between husband and wife, en-musubi, prosperity in business	Identified with Okuninushi from Izumo. Supports the everyday life of people in the castle town.
Main deity	Susanoo-no-Mikoto	Susanoo no Mikoto	Protection from epidemics, recovery from illness, warding off misfortune and disasters	Known for the serpent-slaying legend. Represents the shrine’s role in driving away disease and calamity.
Main deity	Ooyamaguhi-no-Kami	Ooyamaguhi no Kami	Good harvests, protection of mountains and water sources, protection of the kimon (unlucky direction), warding off evil	Main deity of Hiyoshi Taisha at Mount Hiei and the center of Sanno belief. His messenger is the sacred monkey, so Hiyoshi shrines are often called “monkey shrines.”
Sanno Twenty-One Shrines	Shirayamahime-no-Kami	Shirayamahime no Kami	En-musubi, household safety, good harvests	Widely known as a deity of relationships and household harmony. Connected to the matchmaking aspect of the shrine.
Sanno Twenty-One Shrines	Gonan Sanjo Shin	Gonan Sanjo Shin	Descendant prosperity, safety and well-being of the family	A collective name for the five male and three female deities believed to be children of Amaterasu and Susanoo.
Sanno Twenty-One Shrines	Emperor Jinmu	Jinmu Tenno	National peace, long-lasting military fortune	Regarded as the first emperor of Japan, symbolizing the beginning of the nation.
Sanno Twenty-One Shrines	Emperor Chuai	Chuai Tenno	Protection of the state, military fortune	One of the emperor deities enshrined in the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines, with strong connections to warrior families.

Too many gods? The world of the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines

One of the first things that struck me as I walked the grounds was this: there are so many deities here.

Besides the main sanctuary, Hiyoshi Shrine has a complex of subsidiary shrines known as the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines. The names of the kami include Ooyamaguhi-no-Kami, Oonamuchi-no-Mikoto, Shirayamahime-no-Kami, Gonan Sanjo Shin, Emperor Jinmu, Emperor Chuai and many more. Just reading through the list feels like taking a deep breath before a long recital.

Stone information boards list the names of the twenty-one shrines and their deities, such as:

Ushio-no-Miya
Shirayamahime Shrine
Usa-no-Miya
Juge-no-Miya
Sanno-no-Miya
Yahashira Shrine
Kehi Shrine
and others…

The text is tightly packed with information — enough to make you smile and think, “Isn’t that a few too many gods for one place?”

At the same time, this is also a compact reflection of the belief system at Hiyoshi Taisha near Mount Hiei. It gathers in one place the blessings people in a castle town most needed:

Stability of the land and the nation
Prosperity in agriculture and trade
Protection of water and rivers
Healing from illness and protection from epidemics
Success in study and work
En-musubi, safe childbirth and family harmony

Thanks to this combination of three main deities plus the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines, Hiyoshi Shrine still functions as a kind of spiritual infrastructure for the wider Kiyosu area.

Timeline of Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine

Looking at the shrine through a timeline makes it easier to see how deeply it is woven into the history of Kiyosu.

Year (approx.)	Period	Key events
Around 771	8th century (ancient)	During an epidemic in the Owari region, people enshrined Susanoo-no-Mikoto and Oonamuchi-no-Mikoto here as deities to drive away disease. This is said to be the origin of the shrine.
807	Early Heian period	Government official Tachibana no Hayanari builds a new hall of worship. As Tendai Buddhism spreads, the shrine adopts the name “Sanno-gu” and a syncretic form of worship develops.
Late 13th century	Kamakura to early medieval period	The shrine flourishes, its buildings are repaired, hereditary priests are appointed and lands are dedicated to support the shrine. When the provincial capital moves to Kiyosu, Hiyoshi Shrine is revered as the general guardian of the region and is said to have owned more than 4,000 tsubo of shrine land.
1580	Late 16th century (Sengoku period)	Kiyosu castle magistrate Oda Nobuari invites Ooyamaguhi-no-Kami and the Twenty-One Shrines from Hiyoshi Taisha in Sakamoto near Lake Biwa. This forms the basis of the current Sanno Twenty-One Shrines complex.
Late 16th – early 17th century	Sengoku to early Edo period	Oda Nobunaga is said to have attended a “hi-gikyo” trial here, where judgment is made using fire. Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s mother is believed to have prayed here for a child, and to have named her son “Hiyoshi-maru” after receiving her wish. Tokugawa Ieyasu issues a decree forbidding soldiers from misbehaving during the Komaki and Nagakute campaign, and later Matsudaira Tadayoshi undertakes large-scale repairs and reconstruction of the shrine buildings.
Around early 1700s	Edo period	Owari lord Tokugawa Yoshimichi transfers the spirit of the shrine’s deities, together with an Inari shrine, to the Furuwata area of Nagoya as “Sanno Inari.” That branch is now enshrined again within the grounds of Hiyoshi Shrine.
Late 19th century onward	Modern era and later	Under the modern shrine ranking system, Hiyoshi Shrine is classified as a prefectural shrine, and the official name changes from “Sanno-gu” to the current “Hiyoshi Jinja.”

Stone approach — torii gate, taiko bridge, romon and lanterns

At the very start of the approach, a pale stone torii gate and a shrine name pillar stand side by side. Beyond them, a row of stone lanterns leads your eye toward a stone taiko bridge and a wooden romon gate.

Each time you pass under a torii gate, it feels as if a switch flips from “everyday life” to “sacred space.” The straight axis from the entrance all the way to the main hall fits perfectly with the image of a head shrine for a castle town.

Past the torii, multiple stone lanterns line both sides of the path. If you look carefully, even paired lanterns are slightly different in design and proportion:

Some have slim, elegant shafts
Others sit on higher, heavier bases with a lower center of gravity

Even within the single category of “stone lantern,” you can see how design changed with time and according to the wishes of different donors.

Near the lanterns stand several poem and prose monuments carved in stone. Soft, flowing calligraphy chiselled into granite gives you a glimpse into the feelings of people who cherished the shrine enough to leave their words in stone.

The stone taiko bridge is modest in size but beautifully curved, with stone railings and stone giboshi finials. Beyond the bridge you can see the wooden romon gate, and beyond that the main worship hall. It forms a composition that photographs very well — exactly the kind of view you would expect at the spiritual “front gate” of a castle town.

Sanno Inari Shrine and the red torii tunnel

Deeper in the grounds stands the bright vermilion hall of the Sanno Inari Shrine. White fox statues sit at the four corners, each wearing a red bib and guarding the main staircase. With the autumn leaves behind them, the vermilion of the hall and the white of the foxes create a surprisingly colorful scene for early December.

Looking inside, you see many lanterns hanging from the ceiling inscribed with the name “Sanno Inari Daimyojin.” Soft afternoon light filters into the hall and seems to make only the area around the inner sanctuary glow slightly red. It is easy to imagine this place as a center of Inari worship that has supported not only good harvests and business prosperity, but also the overall vitality of Kiyosu.

Beside the Sanno Inari hall there is an older stone torii that leads to a tunnel of red torii gates. The stone torii has rounded corners and moss on its base, showing its long exposure to wind and rain. Beyond it, freshly painted vermilion wooden torii line up one after another.

The row of red gates winds through the trees, with only the vermilion standing out as a rhythm of color amid the greens and browns of the grove. It feels as if a single “red pathway” has been drawn through the grounds, connecting the everyday world to the realm of the foxes.

Hana-chouzu, small shrines and ema — how people pray today

The water basin at the chozuya is arranged as a hana-chouzu, filled with seasonal flowers floating on the surface. Soft pinks and purples cover the water entirely while a dragon-head spout pours water gently into the basin. Even in winter light, the colors stand out clearly — it is the kind of chozuya that makes you want to take a photo before you wash your hands.

Nearby, a small shrine is surrounded by tightly packed stone monuments. It feels like an “archive of prayers,” where the number of stones almost equals the number of wishes offered.

In front of these stones you find a bright red ema rack and an area where omikuji fortunes are tied in thick bundles. With the stone monument hill and lanterns as the backdrop, you see in one frame:

Prayers from the past carved in stone
Prayers from the present written on wood and paper

It is a place where past and present devotion naturally overlap.

Too many messengers — monkeys, foxes, dogs and horses

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Hiyoshi Shrine is that it has many different kinds of animal messengers.

Monkeys flanking the worship hall

The monkey statues sit not directly in front of the hall, but a little to the left and right, set back from the main axis. While the front line is guarded by stone lanterns and other figures, the monkeys watch over the worship hall from a slightly withdrawn position — a placement that feels fitting for the sacred “Sanno monkeys.”

Both monkeys lean forward as if holding something close with both hands. In winter they are covered with cloth, as if residents are dressing them for the cold season. It looks like the tangible form of a wish: “Please keep watching over this shrine, even in the freezing months.”

Guardian dogs at the front

Close to the main hall there is a pair of neatly carved granite guardian dogs. Their overall proportions follow classical patterns, but the expression and the way the fur is carved feel quite modern. Among all the stone images in the grounds, they clearly belong to a younger generation.

Comparing the guardian dogs with the monkeys, foxes and horse statue makes it very easy to see the differences in style between generations of stone masons.

Foxes protecting the Inari shrines

Four fox statues guard the corners of the Sanno Inari hall, and two more sit in front of a smaller Inari shrine deeper in. The large hall has the scale of “looking after the whole town,” while the smaller shrine feels more like a place for very personal, everyday wishes.

The path to this small shrine is the tunnel of low red torii gates. It is slightly darker inside the tunnel than in the rest of the grounds, and for a moment you feel as if you have stepped into the foxes’ own world.

The divine horse

Further inside the grounds, a powerful statue of a divine horse stands on a high stone base. The word for “divine horse” is carved boldly into the base, and the horse rears up with front legs raised. The silhouette and pose perfectly match the image of a horse carrying a deity on its back.

After one loop around the grounds, you realize that:

Monkeys serve Sanno as sacred messengers
Foxes serve Inari
Guardian dogs protect the shrine gateway
The horse serves as a divine mount

Many gods, and many messengers. Hiyoshi Shrine feels like a rare “network of animal guardians” wrapped around a single head shrine.

Face of en-musubi — a shrine couples would enjoy walking together

Hiyoshi Shrine is also known for its en-musubi, or matchmaking blessings.

Among the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines you find Shirayamahime-no-Kami, a deity associated with relationships and household harmony, and Yahashira Shrine, which is connected with harmony and mutual understanding. For a long time, people have come here to pray for good partners and peaceful homes.

When I visited on December 9 it was a quiet weekday, and the grounds were very calm. For most of my time there, I was the only one walking around with a camera.

Even so, as I looked at:

The tunnel of red torii gates
The colorful hana-chouzu
The ema racks and omikuji tied in thick white clusters

I could not help thinking, “This is a shrine couples would really enjoy walking through together.”

The atmosphere is calm and historic, but at the same time there are plenty of visually striking spots dotted around the grounds. It gives the impression of a place where you can:

Take a slow walk like on a date,
and still make a sincere, focused visit to the main hall.

Sengoku warlords and a golden legend — many stories because of its age

Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine is also rich in episodes involving famous Sengoku-period warlords.

A story that Oda Nobunaga once attended a fire-based “hi-gikyo” trial here, where judgment was rendered in front of the kami using fire.
A tradition that Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s mother prayed here for a child, and that she named her son “Hiyoshi-maru” in gratitude when he was born.
An account that Tokugawa Ieyasu issued an order here forbidding his troops from misbehaving during the Komaki and Nagakute campaign, and that Matsudaira Tadayoshi later oversaw major reconstruction work at the shrine.

When the names of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu all appear in the same set of shrine stories, it becomes very clear that this place was deeply involved in the “backstage” of Sengoku politics.

The grounds are also associated with a small “gold coins” legend. One story says that when the stump of a dead tree was dug up, people discovered old coins — sometimes told as gold coins — hidden in the roots. From a modern perspective it sounds like a treasure-hunt tale, but it also shows that people, money and prayers have long gathered here.

The longer a shrine stands, the more stories it naturally accumulates. In this article I have focused on the overall structure and a few representative episodes, but I would like to revisit Hiyoshi Shrine in the future to:

Trace the exact locations mentioned in the warlord stories
Look more closely at the spot associated with the gold coins legend
Write a “second chapter” that explores these narratives in more detail

Conclusion — a shrine where “too much” becomes the charm

Hiyoshi Shrine in Kiyosu can be summed up as:

A historic head shrine that has watched over the Kiyosu castle town for centuries
A shrine where the Sanno Twenty-One Shrines gather, creating a place with “too many gods” in the best possible way
A shrine surrounded by monkeys, foxes, guardian dogs and a divine horse — “too many messengers” forming a network of animal guardians
A shrine with strong en-musubi associations that would be enjoyable for couples to visit
And a shrine rich in warlord episodes and a gold coins legend — a place with an unusually deep stock of stories

At first glance, it might feel like there is simply too much information packed into one precinct. But walking slowly through the grounds, I felt that this very “too much” quality is the special charm of Seisu Sanno-gu Hiyoshi Shrine.

History, stonework, belief, animal statues, matchmaking, warlord tales — whatever your entry point into Japanese culture may be, there is something here that will catch your interest. If you ever visit the Kiyosu area, I recommend taking the time for an unhurried walk through this head shrine.