Kashihara Jingu

Kashihara Jingu (橿原神宮) is a major Shinto shrine located at the foot of Mount Unebi in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture. The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇), the legendary first emperor of Japan, who according to the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀) ascended to the throne at this site on February 11, 660 BCE. The shrine was established in 1890 (Meiji 23) by order of Emperor Meiji, who donated two buildings from the Kyoto Imperial Palace for its construction, one of which now serves as the main hall (honden).

During the 1930s and 1940s, Kashihara Jingu assumed enormous significance within Japan's State Shinto apparatus. The shrine became a central symbol of kokutai (国体, national polity) ideology, which held the emperor to be a divine and unbroken lineage stretching back to the mythical founding of the nation. The government promoted Kashihara as the sacred birthplace of the Japanese state, making it a mandatory pilgrimage destination for cultivating patriotic spirit and imperial loyalty.

The year 1940 (Showa 15) marked the 2,600th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's legendary accession—known as Kigen 2600 (紀元二六〇〇年). The shrine became the epicenter of massive national celebrations. In the first three days of the New Year 1.25 million people visited the shrine, and about 700,000 came on National Foundation Day (紀元節, February 11) alone. Emperor Showa personally visited on June 11, 1940. Throughout the year, approximately 10 million people visited Kashihara Jingu. The government encouraged shrine visits as exceptions to wartime travel restrictions, even offering discounted rail tickets, while simultaneously suppressing leisure tourism with slogans like "Luxury is the Enemy."

From 1938 to 1939, the shrine hosted the Kenkoku Hoshitai (建国奉仕隊, Nation-Building Service Corps), which mobilized thousands of students and youth for labor-intensive construction and patriotic training on its grounds. The shrine's precincts and approach roads were expanded through the voluntary labor of 1.21 million workers, including students on organized trips. Official visits by cabinet ministers from the Ministries of Education (1937), External Affairs (1939), and War (1941) integrated the shrine into wartime state rituals.

Today, Kashihara Jingu remains an active shrine and a significant cultural landmark. Several memorials on the grounds honor Japanese military personnel who fell in World War II, including a memorial for crew members of the aircraft carrier Zuikaku, which sank during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. The shrine continues to hold the Kigensai festival annually on February 11, which remains Japan's National Foundation Day.