Toyosaka Shrine

Toyosaka Shrine sits in the Iwami Ginzan silver mine area and traces its origins to 1561 when the warlord Mohri Motonari built a small temple on a hillside slope to mark his capture of the mine. After the Tokugawa shogunate took control of the mine in 1603, the Mohri were reduced in territory but their sanctuary remained. In 1866, Choshu troops advancing against the shogunate discovered Motonari's likeness inside and, after their side won, built a Shinto shrine on the same site in keeping with the new Meiji government's promotion of native religion. A 1943 landslide buried part of the complex, but the ornate gate, main sanctuary, and worship hall survive.