In the city of Akabira, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, stands a Shinto shrine whose history reaches back to a group of families who left Ishikawa Prefecture in 1895 to establish a new community. What began as a place of worship for settlers separated from their ancestral hometown eventually became an established religious institution, surviving the transformation of Akabira into one of Hokkaido’s coal-mining centers and preserving a connection between two communities hundreds of miles apart.
Akabira Shrine, known in Japanese as Akabira Jinja (赤平神社), originated with the worship of Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, whose presence the settlers brought from their hometown shrine in the Iburihashi district of present-day Kaga City. As the surrounding community developed and coal mining became increasingly important to its economy, the shrine incorporated the worship of Ōyamatsumi, a mountain deity associated with the protection of miners. Its subsequent history included official recognition, relocation, reconstruction, and commemorations of the families who established it.
The Ishikawa Settlers and the Founding of Akabira Shrine
The history of Akabira Shrine began during the Meiji period, when Japanese migration and government-sponsored settlement were transforming Hokkaido. Settlement in the area that would become Akabira had begun by 1891, although much of the surrounding landscape remained difficult for newcomers to cultivate and develop. Rivers provided important transportation routes before an extensive network of roads and railways connected the settlements of the Sorachi region.
In 1894, Kōzaburō Teranishi, a resident of Ishikawa Prefecture, surveyed the Upper Akabira area as a possible destination for a group of prospective settlers from Iburihashi. According to a historical account published by Kaga City in February 2026, Teranishi spent approximately seven months investigating the area before returning to Ishikawa in October to organize the migration. The following spring, he led a group of families to Hokkaido, where they began establishing homes and clearing land.
The historical sources differ slightly concerning the number of households involved in the migration. The Hokkaido Shrine Association and Heibonsha’s Historical Place Names of Japan identify forty-eight households under Teranishi’s leadership, while Kaga City’s 2026 commemorative history records forty-seven. The discrepancy remains unresolved in the available published accounts, although the sources agree on the leadership of Teranishi and the importance of the 1895 migration to the subsequent development of Akabira.
For these families, establishing a religious institution was an early part of building their new community. The Hokkaido Shrine Association records that in August 1895 the settlers resolved to create a place of worship where they could pray for the prosperity of the nation, the happiness of their village, and the success of their settlement. They brought their ancestral religious tradition from Furihashi Shrine in Iburihashi, dedicating their new place of worship to Amaterasu.
A building followed in 1897, according to Heibonsha’s historical gazetteer, which identifies the original institution as Iburihashi Shrine. The name preserved the settlers’ connection to their former home, even as the shrine gradually became associated with the developing community of Akabira.
Furihashi Shrine and the Religious Connection to Kaga
The religious origins of Akabira Shrine are closely connected to Furihashi Shrine in present-day Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture. Long before the migration of 1895, Furihashi Shrine served as an established religious institution for the Iburihashi community, with traditions associated with the historical worship of the deities of Mount Hakusan.
Kaga City’s historical landscape preservation plan identifies the shrine’s earlier name as Hakusan Gongen, reflecting the combination of Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions historically associated with Hakusan worship. During the religious reforms of the early Meiji period, the institution was renamed Hakusan Shrine in February 1873, and later that year it received recognition as an important shrine within its local administrative district. It adopted the name Furihashi Shrine in 1890, only a few years before the migration to Hokkaido. Its principal deities include Kukurihime, Amaterasu, and Ōnamuchi.
The religious relationship between Furihashi Shrine and Akabira Shrine was preserved through the tradition of transferring sacred elements from the ancestral shrine to the new settlement. In an official account published by Akabira City on October 18, 2025, the municipal Planning Division described how the original settlers brought earth from Furihashi Shrine to Hokkaido in 1895 and incorporated it into the foundation of their new place of worship.
This practice symbolized the continuation of the settlers’ relationship with their ancestral shrine. Although they had left Ishikawa, their religious traditions remained connected to the institution that had served their families before the migration. More than a century later, the relationship between the two shrines continued to be recognized by the communities of Akabira and Kaga.
Coal Mining and the Enshrinement of Ōyamatsumi
During the early twentieth century, the surrounding settlement underwent a transformation that would eventually reshape Akabira’s economy and population. The opening of the railway through the Sorachi River valley in 1913 improved transportation, allowing people, supplies, and agricultural products to move more efficiently between the inland settlements and other parts of Hokkaido.
The subsequent development of coal mining brought new workers and families into the region. In 1918, the Ōkura Mining Company opened its Mojiri mine, contributing to Akabira’s emergence as an important coal-producing community. With mining becoming increasingly significant, the religious responsibilities of the local shrine expanded.
That same year, Akabira Shrine incorporated the worship of Ōyamatsumi, a mountain deity enshrined at Ōyamazumi Shrine on Ōmishima in present-day Ehime Prefecture. The Hokkaido Shrine Association records that the deity was invited and enshrined alongside Amaterasu as coal mining developed in the surrounding district.
Ōyamatsumi occupied an important place in the religious traditions of Japan’s mining communities. Mines were often associated with the worship of mountain deities, and religious ceremonies provided opportunities for workers and mining officials to seek protection in an occupation marked by dangerous underground conditions.
Historical photographs preserved in the Coal and Railway Heritage Digital Museum illustrate the continuation of these practices in Akabira during the twentieth century. One photograph, taken around 1955, shows officials of the Sumitomo Akabira Coal Mine offering prayers to Ōyamatsumi. The museum also records the annual mountain-deity festivals held at local mines, which brought workers and their families together in religious and community celebrations.
These photographs document religious practices within Akabira’s mining industry rather than ceremonies at Akabira Shrine itself. Nevertheless, they provide important evidence of the wider religious environment in which the shrine’s worship of Ōyamatsumi developed.
Official Recognition and the Development of Akabira Shrine
As the surrounding settlement expanded, Akabira Shrine underwent a series of administrative and institutional changes. The shrine eventually adopted the name of Akabira and relocated to grounds in the area now associated with Akabira Park.
In 1932, it was formally established under the name Akabira Shrine as an unranked shrine within Japan’s historical system of shrine administration. Five years later, in 1937, it received recognition as a village shrine, a classification used within the prewar system of officially recognized Shinto institutions. These developments reflected the shrine’s established position within the growing community.
By this period, Akabira was experiencing increasingly rapid industrial development. Additional coal mines opened during the late 1930s, including operations associated with Sumitomo Akabira and Hokkaido Colliery and Steamship Company. New housing districts, businesses, and schools emerged around the mines, while the region attracted workers from elsewhere in Japan.
The Second World War and its aftermath brought further changes to Akabira and to the administration of Shinto shrines throughout Japan. In August 1950, Akabira Shrine relocated to its present grounds in Izumicho. In March 1953, it was registered as a religious corporation, giving it a legal status within Japan’s postwar system of religious institutions.
Its relocation and registration marked another stage in a history that had begun with a small community of settlers more than half a century earlier.
Reconstruction, Memorials, and the Preservation of Settlement History
Akabira Shrine’s grounds preserve commemorative monuments that document the history of the original settlement, the development of the shrine, and the experiences of later generations.
A pioneer memorial erected in 1930 commemorated the early settlers, while another monument, constructed in 1984, recognized the people associated with Akabira’s development. Photographic documentation of the shrine’s grounds also records a war memorial dating from September 1953 and a construction memorial associated with the extensive rebuilding of the shrine during the 1980s.
The original settlement was also remembered elsewhere in the community. On September 5, 1930, a monument was erected in the grounds of Upper Akabira Elementary School to commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the arrival of the 1895 settlers. A historical photograph of this monument, preserved by Akabira City and made available through the Coal and Railway Heritage Digital Museum, provides contemporary visual evidence of the community’s efforts to commemorate its founding generation.
The shrine underwent a major reconstruction during the early 1980s. In July 1983, a construction association was established to organize the project, and a groundbreaking ceremony followed that September. Construction progressed during 1984, with a ceremony marking the completion of the main structure in May and a ceremony for transferring the enshrined deities into the reconstructed building in August.
The rebuilding project also included improvements to the shrine office, associated buildings, and surrounding grounds. In June 1985, Akabira Shrine celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of its founding, connecting the newly reconstructed religious institution with the settlers who had established its predecessor in 1895.
The Centennial and the Friendship Between Akabira and Kaga
The relationship between Akabira and the hometown of its original settlers continued to develop during the late twentieth century, eventually becoming an official friendship between the two municipalities.
During the early 1990s, preparations for a new history of Akabira encouraged renewed research into the families who had migrated from Ishikawa. The city’s history compilation office sought assistance from historians in Kaga, and the resulting exchanges brought residents of the two communities into closer contact.
On May 26, 1993, a delegation from Akabira visited Furihashi Shrine in Iburihashi. The visit was part of a broader effort to reconnect descendants of the original settlers with their ancestral hometown. Kaga City’s February 2026 municipal publication records that the delegation included twenty-seven residents who traveled to the region and participated in activities commemorating their shared history.
The exchanges culminated in the signing of an official friendship agreement between Akabira and Kaga on October 10, 1995. The agreement coincided with the centennial year of the original migration, commemorating a relationship that had begun with the families who departed Ishikawa a century earlier.
Akabira Shrine marked its own centennial in July 1995, completing commemorative projects and holding religious ceremonies to recognize the anniversary. Three years earlier, in January 1992, the shrine had resolved to acquire the land it had long leased from the Japanese government, securing ownership of its grounds.
The friendship between the two municipalities subsequently included cultural, educational, and festival exchanges. Traditions associated with the Guzu-yaki Festival in Iburihashi were introduced to Akabira’s Fire Festival, creating another connection between the religious and cultural traditions of the two communities.
In August 2025, a delegation from Akabira returned to Kaga as part of the thirtieth anniversary of the municipal friendship agreement. The visitors included city officials and representatives of Akabira’s cultural organizations, who participated in ceremonies and local celebrations.
During their visit, members of the delegation returned to Furihashi Shrine, where they offered prayers and acknowledged the shrine’s relationship with Akabira’s religious origins. The delegation also attended the Guzu-yaki Festival, witnessing a tradition that continues to occupy an important place in the cultural life of Iburihashi. The events were documented in a firsthand municipal account published by Akabira City in October 2025 and in Kaga City’s February 2026 commemorative publication.
Akabira Shrine and Its Continuing Religious Traditions
Today, Akabira Shrine continues to serve as a Shinto religious institution in the city that developed around the original settlement. Its principal deities remain Amaterasu and Ōyamatsumi, reflecting the two major historical influences that shaped its religious identity.
According to the Hokkaido Shrine Association, its annual festival is held on September 8, maintaining a regular place for religious celebration within the community. The shrine’s grounds, monuments, and reconstructed buildings preserve the history of its institutional development, while its continued connection with Furihashi Shrine provides a reminder of the families who carried their religious traditions from Ishikawa to Hokkaido.
The story of Akabira Shrine also illustrates the relationship between religion and Japan’s industrial history. The original dedication to Amaterasu reflected the religious traditions of an agricultural settlement, while the later incorporation of Ōyamatsumi connected the shrine with an expanding coal-mining community.
That industrial history has since entered another stage. The Sumitomo Akabira Coal Mine closed in 1994, bringing an end to the city’s long period as a major coal-producing center. Yet the historical institutions associated with the settlement and industrial development of Akabira continue to provide connections with its past.
From its establishment by settlers in 1895 to the reconstruction of its buildings and the commemoration of its centennial, Akabira Shrine has remained closely associated with the changing history of the community around it. Its religious traditions preserve memories of the families who crossed from Ishikawa, the miners who transformed Akabira into an industrial town, and the generations who maintained the shrine through periods of economic and social change.
Its history is also a reminder that the movement of people carried more than labor and settlement plans into Hokkaido. Religious traditions, ancestral relationships, and the memory of former communities accompanied the settlers and became part of the institutions they established in their new homes.
Sources & Further Reading
Hokkaido Shrine Association. “Akabira Jinja” [Akabira Shrine]. Accessed September 27, 2026. https://hokkaidojinjacho.jp/赤平神社/.
Akabira City. “Yūkō Toshi Kaga-shi e 20-nen Buri no Hōmon Sono 2” [Visiting Our Friendship City, Kaga, for the First Time in Twenty Years, Part 2]. October 18, 2025. https://akabira-city.note.jp/n/n26c0c702ec08.
Kaga City. “Akabira-shi, Kaga-shi Yūkō Toshi Kyōtei Teiketsu 30-shūnen” [Thirtieth Anniversary of the Friendship Agreement between Akabira and Kaga]. Kōhō Kaga, no. 245 (February 2026): 4–5. https://www.city.kaga.ishikawa.jp/material/files/group/14/2026-02.pdf.
Kaga City. Kaga-shi Rekishiteki Fūchi Iji Kōjō Keikaku: Dai 2-shō [Kaga City Historical Landscape Preservation and Improvement Plan, Chapter 2]. 2021. https://www.city.kaga.ishikawa.jp/material/files/group/82/rekimachi_dai2syou2.pdf.
Coal and Railway Heritage Digital Museum. “Akabira no Kurashi, Gyōji (3)” [Everyday Life and Festivals in Akabira, Part 3]. Historical photograph collection. Photographs held by Akabira City. https://3city.net/archives/database/akabira/3601/.
Coal and Railway Heritage Digital Museum. “Akabira no Kurashi, Gyōji (2)” [Everyday Life and Festivals in Akabira, Part 2]. Historical photograph collection. Photographs held by Akabira City. https://3city.net/archives/database/akabira/3600/.
Coal and Railway Heritage Digital Museum. “Sumitomo Akabira Tankō (1)” [Sumitomo Akabira Coal Mine, Part 1]. Historical photograph collection. https://3city.net/archives/database/akabira/3593/.
Akabira City History Compilation Committee, ed. Akabira Shishi [History of Akabira City]. 2 vols. Akabira: Akabira City, 2001. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000004379226.
Akabira City History Compilation Committee, ed. Akabira Hachijūnenshi [Eighty Years of Akabira History]. Akabira: Akabira City, 1973. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000039-I9569159.
Hokkaido Shrine Association. Hokkaidō Jinja-shi Nenpyō [Chronological History of Hokkaido Shrines]. Sapporo: Hokkaido Shrine Association, 1956. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000000956306.
Hokkaido Shrine Association, ed. Hokkaidō Jinja-shi [Gazetteer of Hokkaido Shrines]. Sapporo: Hokkaido Shrine Association, 1971. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1970586434931728273.
Hokkaido Shrine Association Editorial Committee, ed. Hokkaidō Jinja-chō-shi [History of the Hokkaido Shrine Association]. Sapporo: Hokkaido Shrine Association, 1999. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000002812759.
Heibonsha. “Akabira Jinja” [Akabira Shrine]. Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei [Historical Place Names of Japan]. Reproduced in Kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/赤平神社-3019448.
Akabira City. “Akabira Shishi o Hanbai Shiteimasu” [Akabira City History Available for Purchase]. February 26, 2013. https://www.city.akabira.hokkaido.jp/docs/2012122700056.html.
“Goshuin: Akabira-shi, Akabira Jinja” [Shrine Seal: Akabira Shrine, Akabira City]. Moiwa Oroshi ni Toyohira no Nagare, August 19, 2019. Photographic documentation of the shrine and its commemorative inscriptions. https://www.moiwa-orosi.com/entry/2019/08/19/【御朱印】赤平市_赤平神社.
Hashimoto, Yuri. “Akabira Jinja: Sanpai Repōto” [Akabira Shrine: A Visit Report]. Jinja Channel. Includes photographs of the shrine’s reconstruction memorial and a transcription of its inscription. https://zinja-omairi.com/akabira/.
Kokugakuin University. “Introduction: The History of Shinto.” Encyclopedia of Shinto. https://d-museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/eos/detail/?id=9115.
Hardacre, Helen. Shinto: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. https://www.si.edu/object/shinto-history-helen-hardacre%3Asiris_sil_1072175.