The legend behind the Sasuke Inary shrine is: Yoritomo Minamoto founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, was in exile in the Izu Peninsula, he fell sick one day. An old man appeared in his dream for the third night in a row, and urged him to rise up against the Taira clan, the arch-rival who had nearly exterminated the Minamoto clan except for Yoritomo. When he was a young boy, the Taira clan had ousted him from the hometown in Kyoto instead of execution.
He asked the old man in the dream who he was. The old man disappeared after saying, "I am the god of Inari dwelling near Kamakura." Yoritomo interpreted this was a divine message and resolved to fight against the Taira. Minamoto headed by Yoritomo eventually won the battle and unified the country, placing military headquarters in Kamakura.
After the victory over the Taira, Yoritomo ordered his men to look for the old man's hermitage. They found a tiny shrine which looked like the man's hermitage at the site the Shrine stands today. Yoritomo remodeled it to dedicate to the god of Inari and named it Sasuke. The term Sasuke literally means 'helping Yoritomo' in Chinese characters. |
