kayano jinja

This shrine in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, traces its founding to the reign of Emperor Yuryaku, when the Harita clan enshrined their ancestor Emperor Kaika, the ninth emperor of Japan. The shrine is also known as Kyutaio-no-Miya. In 715 CE, a turtle emerged from a cave during a severe drought, after which rain began to fall — this legend inspired the shrine's distinctive emblem, the 'mino-kame' (raincoat turtle). Successive lords of Zeze Castle held the shrine in reverence. Renamed Kayano Shrine in 1869, it continues to serve as the local tutelary deity of the Seta area.