Hiro Hachimangu Shrine

This Hachiman shrine is located in Wakayama Prefecture. Just when it was founded is unclear, but it has served locals as a guardian shrine of safe childbirth since ancient times. Shrine structures such as the wooden, Hinoki cypress shingled Honden front shrine and Wakamiya-sha secondary shrine built in the distant Muromachi period, as well as a tanto short sword in the shrine's possession made by Rai Kunimitsu, have been designated Important Cultural Properties. During the shrine's annual major festival in autumn, a type of traditional music and dance performance called the Shippara Odori is performed for the gods; believed to have originated in the Muromachi period, the ancient dance reenacts the rice farming process from seedling planting to harvesting. The shrine is also famously the place where local man Goryo Hamaguchi lit rice straw on fire to guide local villagers to safety when a huge tsunami was headed for the village after a great earthquake in 1854. Accordingly, the shrine holds a fire festival during which bales of rice straw are lit on fire each year in October.