senhime tenmanguu

Senhime Tenmangu on Otokoyama Hill in Himeji was established in 1623 by Princess Senhime, granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu. After her husband Toyotomi Hideyori perished in the Osaka Summer Campaign, she remarried Honda Tadaoki and moved to Himeji Castle. Devoted to the deity Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane), she built this shrine to bless the Honda clan and protect the castle from the northwest. The shrine faces east so she could worship from the castle keep. Dedicated to the god of learning, it draws visitors seeking academic success and, given the couple's famed devotion, blessings for love and marriage.