If there is anything we can all give thanks for, it’s food — that which keeps us alive, and in many cases, sane and happy. Some shrines prefer to specialise in particular types of food, resulting in some strangely specific places and festivals across Japan. We introduced shrines dedicated to sake, sweet potatoes, and shōchū in a previous post. Here's the follow-up, with a few more delicious oddities to chew on.
Pickles
We previously wrote about Saka Shrine in Shimane, where you can pray to the gods of sake-brewing as well as fermentation. On a similarly funky note, one can pray to the goddess of pickles at Kayatsu Shrine in Ama, Aichi Prefecture. Kayanohime is a fairly minor deity in the Shinto pantheon, being mostly associated with agriculture, vegetation, grass, fields, and herbs.
Kayatsu Shrine claims to be the originator of Japanese pickles. This (somewhat dubious) claim comes from a story where villagers placed vegetables in jars of salt to prevent their intended votive offerings to the kami from rotting. Naturally, these pickles were perceived as a gift from Kayanohime, and now the shrine holds a pickle festival every 21 August with fermented cucumbers and aubergines as offerings.
Salmon
Sake Shrine in Kama City, Fukuoka, is supposedly the only one in Japan dedicated to salmon, and its principal deity is indeed a salmon. Three of the other deities worshipped here are Hikohohodemi no Mikoto (also known as Hoori), Toyotama-hime (daughter of the sea god, Ryūjin), and their son Ugayafukiaezu. The shrine is located close to the headwaters of the Onga River, and is thought to have been built around 1,200 years ago.
According to legends told in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Hoori and Toyotama-hime were married for a time, but she returned to the sea after he broke his promise to not look at her true form — a dragon. (We knew that man was fishy.) Nevertheless, she continued to miss him and their son, and would entrust a salmon with a missive to be delivered to them once a year. Is this why salmon swim up the river?
Sake Shrine holds the Kenkeisai, or Salmon Offering Festival, on 13 December every year to pray for a good harvest. (It used to be held a month earlier in November when the lunar calendar was commonly used.) Salmon are considered messengers of the gods in this area, and a local legend says that if they make it safely to the shrine around the time of the salmon-offering ceremony, there’ll be a bountiful harvest ahead. One local superstition suggests not eating salmon so as to avoid severing one’s family line, but few people avoid salmon in practice.
Ice
Centuries before the invention of freezers, drinking sake with ice was a privilege afforded only to the aristocracy. But they weren’t the ones who invented a way to store ice. It was Tsugenoinagi-oyamanushi, a fourth-century man from Nara, who developed a method of storing ice in a man-made himuro (‘ice room’) to prevent it from melting in the summer. The younger brother of Emperor Nintoku encountered the ice-room inventor on a hunting expedition, and subsequently introduced the ice-storage technique to the imperial court.
You know what happens next. Tsugenoinagi-oyamanushi was eventually deified and enshrined as the god of ice, and these days is worshipped at Himuro Shrine in downtown Nara. The shrine’s primary patrons are those involved in the ice industry: ice producers, kakigori makers, and bartenders, but also ice cream makers and fridge manufacturers. The Kenpyō Festival held on 1 May sees two fish-filled columns of ice being offered to the deity to pray for a long, hot summer — not that we need it. Equally fun is the annual Himuro Shirayuki Festival, where famous kakigori makers from all over Japan gather at the shrine in March and serve bowls of shaved ice to visitors.
Spices and seasonings
Hajikami Shrine in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa, is where spice lovers should go to give thanks for flavourful food. While the shrine was originally managed as part of Tajika Hachiman Shrine (and referred to as such), Hajikami was deemed a more important deity than Hachiman sometime during the Edo period, resulting in its name being changed. (At least, this is what some sources say.) To our knowledge, this 1,300 year-old shrine is the only one in Japan dedicated to Hajikami-no-kami, the deity of spices and seasoning (as well as medicine and harvests).
‘Hajikami’ refers to young ginger shoots that have been pickled in vinegar, salt, and sugar — it’s a classic garnish for grilled fish like salmon. However, the word ‘hajikami’ wasn’t originally used only for this specific type of ginger, but also for ‘spicy food you could bite down on and chew,’ such as sansho peppers and wasabi roots. (Bonus for kanji nerds: 椒, 薑, 矢生姜 and 芽生姜 all used to be read as ‘hajikami.’)
How did the shrine acquire its association with ‘hajikami’? It stems from a months-long drought in Kaga Province sometime during the Nara period. The governor fasted and prayed for 37 days and nights at the shrine, and on the 37th day, a water source appeared near the shrine. Offerings had to be made in thanks, but all the crops had withered and died. Fortunately, some people found wild ginger that had survived the drought, and held a festival to express their gratitude to the gods. The resulting Hajikami Festival is still held every year on 15 June, with many spicy offerings of ginger, curry, ginger ale, and more being made. An offering of hot sauce might not go amiss.
There’s also a small shrine on the grounds deifying legendary 1st-century hero-statesman Takenouchi no Sukune. He was apparently the first person to introduce ginger to Japan for medicinal purposes, something he picked up during Empress Jingu’s conquest of the Korean Peninsula. That he’d spent time in Korea is clear, but this particular story is difficult to verify.
Chickens
There aren’t any shrines solely dedicated to chickens, whether as food or as animals. That might be too much to hope for. However, Tokei Shrine in Tanabe, Wakayama, comes close. It’s a beautiful space with a handful of ancient camphor trees, and more importantly, statues of warrior-monk Benkei, his father, and two roosters. These statues depict a scene from a story in The Tale of Heike, where Benkei’s father stages a series of cock fights to decide which clan he should support in the Genpei War. The rooster with the white feathers won, so he chose to support the Minamotos over the Tairas. (Surely tossing a coin would have achieved a similar outcome.) Perhaps in reference to this story, the shrine has chicken-themed elements all around — votive tablets with cute chickens, chicken-themed fortune slips and amulets, bronze chicken statues.
To see live chickens at a shrine, head over to Isonokami Jingu Shrine in Sakurai, Nara. It is probably common knowledge by now that deers are considered messengers of the gods, which is why they’re allowed to roam free around Nara Park. At this shrine, however, chickens are the chosen messengers for the deities, so the grounds are home to around 30 free-roaming sacred roosters and hens. (In short: A rooster’s cry helped draw the sun goddess Amaterasu out of hiding, returning light to the world.) These aren’t your regular fryers or broilers, but rarer breeds of ornamental chickens.
If you prefer your chicken cooked but still want to thank them for their sacrifice, try attending the annual memorial service for chickens at Nakatsu Daijingu Shrine in Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture. Fried chicken is serious business in this city. This short report on the 2025 memorial service features a fantastic photo of a priest solemnly receiving a platter of fried chicken to be offered to the gods.
Written by Florentyna Leow