Nogi-jinja Shrine (乃木神社)

Nogi-jinja Shrine is the Shinto shrine which deifies Maresuke NOGI who played an active role as a prominent military officer in Meiji period. There are several Nogi-jinja Shrines in Japan. Nogi-jinja Shrines are primarily located in the places which are associated with Nogi: Shimonoseki City where he was from, and Nasushiobara City where he owned a villa as his second residence.

In addition to Nogi-jinja Shrine related to Nogi, there is another Nogi-jinja Shrine in the same Tochigi Prefecture; however, in spite of having phonetically the same names, they are from different schools of shrines with different backgrounds (According to tradition, it is believed that the different school of Nogi-jinja Shrine was built around the forth century). Nevertheless, the other Nogi-jinja Shrine is sometimes associated with Maresuke NOGI, as he had visited the shrine to pray a couple of times and also gave some dedication services there, since he regarded it as a special shrine whose name was phonetically the same as his family name.

Nogi-jinja Shrine (Nasushiobara City) (Nasushiobara City, Tochigi Prefecture) -- It is located within the site of the villa where Nogi lived in retirement after Shino-Japanese War. It was ranked as the prefectural shrine (of prefectures other than Kyoto and Osaka) according to the old classification of shrines.

Nogi-jinja (Kyoto City) (Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City) -- It is located around the foot of the Imperial mausoleum of Emperor Meiji. It was ranked as Fusha (the prefectural shrine of either Kyoto or Osaka) according to the old classification of shrines.

Nogi-jinja (Shimonoseki City) (Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) -- Chofu, Shimonoseki City is the place where Nogi came from. It was ranked as the prefectural shrine (of prefectures other than Kyoto and Osaka) in the old classification of shrines.

Nogi-jinja Shrine (Akasaka, Minato Ward, Tokyo) -- It is located next to the residence where Mr. and Mrs. Nogi fell on their swords. It was ranked as Fusha (the prefectural shrine of either Kyoto or Osaka) in the old classification of shrines before; however, it is one of the shrines on the exceptional list (Beppyo-jinja shrine) of The Association of Shinto Shrines in the present.

There is a branch shrine of Nogi-jinja Shrine in Nogi-cho, Hakodate City, Hokkaido. The branch shrine was originally built as an independent Hakodate Nogi-jinja Shrine in 1916, and when it was donated to Tokyo Nogi-jinja Shrine in 1964, it became the Hakodate Branch of Tokyo Nogi-jinja Shrine.

Nogi-jinja Shrine in the site of Kagawa-ken Prefecture Gokoku-jinja Shrine (Zentsuji City, Kagawa Prefecture) -- The shrine is called 'Sanuki no miya Shrine,' so is Kagawa-ken Prefecture Gokoku-jinja Shrine.

Muroran City, Hokkaido
Azuchi-cho, Gamo-gun, Shiga Prefecture

[Original Japanese]