Kakinomoto Shrine (æ¿æ¬ç¥Â社 Kakinomoto-jinja) is a Shinto shrine in Akashi, Hyà Âgo. It is also referred to as Hitomaru-san.
The shrine's principal deity is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a historical figure who is reputed to have passed through the Akashi area during his life, and who was deified in the centuries following his death, as a god of literature, scholarship, fire safety, and childbirth.
According to tradition, the shrine was founded in 887 by the monk Kakushà Â, in the grounds of the Gesshà Â-ji temple. It moved to its current location to accommodate the construction of Akashi Castle.
The shrine's principal deity is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a god of waka poetry and, by extension, scholarship and literature, but also, by way of a pair of puns on his name, fire safety (ç«æ¢ã¾ã hi-tomaru = "fire stop") and childbirth (人çÂÂã hito-umaru = "person is born")
According to tradition, Hitomaro passed through the Akashi area multiple times while travelling between his home in Yamato Province and his assigned district in Iwami Province, and a poem he wrote on Akashi Strait survives.
The history of the shrine is said to begin in 887 (Ninna 3), when Kakushà  (è¦Â証), a Buddhist monk of the temple Gesshà Â-ji, speculated that Hitomaro's spirit had come to rest in Akashi and constructed a small shrine at the back of his temple. Both the temple and the shrine were moved to their current location to accommodate the construction of Akashi Castle. In 1723 (Kyà Âhà  8) the shrine was granted the in Japan's and the shrine's deity was given the title (<small></small>) Kakinomoto Dai-myà Âjin (æ¿æ¬大æÂÂç¥Â).
The shrine is familiarly referred to by local people with the nickname Hitomaru-san (人丸ãÂÂãÂÂ).
In the shrine grounds is a monument constructed on the order of , inscribed with a 1,712-character biography of Hitomaro.