Usa Jingū

, also known as Usa Hachimangū, is a Shinto shrine in the city of Usa in Ōita Prefecture in Japan. Emperor Ojin, who was deified as Hachiman-jin (the tutelary god of warriors), is said to be enshrined in all the sites dedicated to him; and the first and earliest of these was at Usa in the early 8th century. The Usa Jingū has long been the recipient of Imperial patronage; and its prestige is considered second only to that of Ise. The shrine was founded in Kyushu during the Nara period. Ancient records place the foundation of Usa Jingū in the Wadō era (708–714). A temple called Miroku-ji was built next to it in 779, making it what is believed to be the first shrine-temple (jingū-ji) ever. The resulting mixed complex, called Usa Hachimangu-ji, lasted over a millennium until 1868, when the Buddhist part was removed to comply with the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act. It is today the center from which over 40,000 branch Hachiman shrines have grown. Usa's Hachiman shrine first appears in the chronicles of Imperial history during the reign of Empress Shōtoku. The empress allegedly had an affair with a Buddhist monk named Dōkyō. An oracle was said to have proclaimed that the monk should be made emperor; and the kami Hachiman at Usa was consulted for verification. The empress died before anything further could develop. In the 16th century, the temple was razed to the ground and repeatedly attacked by the Christian-sympathizing lord of Funai Ōtomo Yoshishige. The wife of Yoshishige, Ōtomo-Nata Jezebel was the High Priestess alongside Nara Clan and resisted against her former husband's attacks. Usa Jingū was designated as the chief Shinto shrine (ichinomiya) for the former Buzen province. From 1871 through 1946, Usa was officially designated one of the Kanpei-taisha, meaning that it stood in the first rank of government-supported shrines. Other similarly honored Hachiman shrines were Iwashimizu Hachimangū of Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture and Hakozaki-gū of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture. The earliest recorded use of a mikoshi was in the 8th century.