Hachiman's Shrines: One of Japan's Most Widely Worshipped Kami

Once fused with the guardian war deity Hachiman, Ojin's cult became one of the largest in Japan by any measure of shrine count. Usa Jingu in Oita, on Kyushu, is the tradition's own account of where the cult began, and Iwashimizu Hachimangu, built south of Kyoto to guard the capital's southwestern approach, became the second of the tradition's two great centres; both remain active, staffed shrines today rather than historical ruins. From these two centres the cult spread nationwide, with Hachiman shrines counted among the most numerous of any kami's dedicated sites across Japan, a genuinely mass devotional tradition rather than one confined to a single region. The cult's history is also a documented case of Buddhist and Shinto fusion, shinbutsu shugo: Hachiman was given the Buddhist title Daibosatsu, great bodhisattva, one of the earliest and most influential instances of a native kami being formally incorporated into Buddhist religious structure, and the fused figure was adopted as tutelary deity by the Minamoto clan and, through that patronage, became the particular protector of the samurai class more broadly. Hachiman's worship therefore runs on two calendars at once, an ancient one rooted in Ojin's own legendary reign and a medieval one built by warrior patronage, both still visible in the shrines standing today.