Shinto shrines · The temple and shrine corporations · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Shirayama Hongū

Shirayama Hongū at the foot of Hakusan in Kaga (Ishikawa) is the chief shrine of the mountain and the Kaga gate.

In 1177 the monks of a Hakusan branch temple (the Heike story names Usukawa; recalled) fought the men of the Kaga governor, Fujiwara no Morotaka, son of the courtier Saikō, and his deputy; Enryakuji took their side, and the quarrel belongs to the crisis of 1177 that ended with the Shishigatani plot and Saikō's fall (recalled, not re-read). The shrine is a Tendai branch under Enryakuji, with estates in Kaga, and its monks are armed. In the Genpei war the Hakusan monks helped Kiso Yoshinaka on his march through the Hokuriku (recalled).

Who holds it

Name
not pinned for 1200
Title
Head of the shrine (zasu), under Enryakuji's supervision
Since
not applicable
Family
not known
Confidence
low

Recollection: the main Hakusan shrine on the Kaga side; the Shishigatani conspirator Saikō's son Fujiwara no Morotaka, the Kaga governor, fought it in 1177; no page opened.

Overlord

Enryakuji in the Tendai hierarchy; the court's governor of Kaga in law

What it holds

  • The Hakusan shrine at Shirayama and the Kaga side of the mountain
  • Estates in Kaga (recalled, not itemised)

How it was acquired

By old cult.

Allies and rivals

Rival of Heisenji; ally of Enryakuji.

How things stand that morning

Quiet.

Wealth

Offerings; estates; no figure.

Military

Armed monks; no numbers.

Threats

  • Quarrels with Heisenji and the governor

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board's point at 36.44 136.63 is the shrine: accepted; the details of 1177 are recalled.

Evidence: Recollection only.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Mountain block.

Primary sources for Temple powers (west)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
  • Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
  • Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
  • Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
  • Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
  • The Tale of the Heike, Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, performed and reshaped by blind reciters (early thirteenth century in its first form; the standard Kakuichi text was fixed in 1371). The epic of the Genpei war, in the form the reciters gave it over the century after 1200. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. KJA_BRIEF.md and the OMNIA board for sheet kja (the lead's notes: [own] computation, [not yet checked against the source] recollection, [en] English Wikipedia)
  2. Azuma Kagami (the Kamakura chronicle), Kenkyu 10 to Shoji 2 entries, recalled and through the brief; ja.wikipedia and ja.wikisource were refused in this session, so no entry was re-read
  3. Jeffrey P. Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (1974), from memory; the archive.org full text could not be opened

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.