- Japanese: 元町厳島神社 (Motomachi Itsukushima jinja)
Motomachi Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Motomachi neighborhood of Yokohama.
The shrine is dedicated to Benten and dates back roughly 700 years, to long before Yokohama was anything more than a remote fishing village. Originally, the shrine was located elsewhere, at a place called Shûkan Island. In the Genroku period (1688-1704), it was split, and moved to Zôtoku-in temple in Motomachi (not to be confused with the temple by the same name in the nearby San'ya neighborhood). In the Meiji period (1868-1912), however, in accordance with new policies against the mixing of Buddhism and Shinto, the shrine was divorced from the temple, and reestablished in Motomachi.
References
- Plaques on-site.