The Sacred Object that Escaped Destruction: The Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine, dedicated to God of Peace, Tokugawa Ieyasu
The Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine, dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu is located on a hill approximately 300 meters north of the JR Hiroshima Station.
Honden (the main hall) and Haiden (the worship hall) burned away after the atomic bombing, and then later rebuilt. But the Karamon gate, Yokuro (transept), Chozusha (purification trough), the Honjido hall, Gokusho (offering hall), Wakikado gate, and Mikoshi (the portable shrine), which have been here since the shrine was built, are all designated as important tangible cultural properties by the city of Hiroshima, featuring the architectural characteristics of the early Edo period to this day today. (*The Honjido hall is undergoing dismantling and repairing until 2023.)
Immediately after the atomic bombing, people flocked to this place, overlooking the city of Hiroshima, for water. A memorial for the bombing was erected beside the road to the shrine. We asked Ms. Kubota Keiko, a senior priestess at the shrine, about the origins of the Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine, and what things was like during the atomic bombing.