Virtual New Innami County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #29 Jifuku-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Jifuku-ji Temple was founded in Inaya Village, Innami County, Harima Province.  It has been abolished and it is unknown where it was exactly located.

     The Inaya area has Otoshi Shrine, whose foundation date is unknown.  It enshrines Toshigami.

     Toshigami is the deity of abundant harvests, specifically associated with rice and other grains. While Toshigami appears in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), this deity is notably absent from the Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), which was completed in 720 with a stronger focus on legitimizing the imperial lineage. This exclusion suggests that as the central government established a formal Shinto hierarchy, certain local or folk deities like Toshigami were overlooked or marginalized in favor of the state-sanctioned mythological framework.

     Anyway, as the temple name Jifuku means Land Fortune, Jifuku-ji Temple could have been a shrine temple of Inaya Otoshi Shrine.  If so, the temple might have been abolished after the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868

     For your information, Otoshi's son was Mitoshi, and Mitoshi's sons were Wakatoshi and Kukutoshi.

Inaya Otoshi Shrine

Address: Kakogawacho, Kakogawa, Hyogo 675-0034