This is the twentieth of my ex post facto shrine reports. This is another shrine I visited with my late wife Mitsuko;  we visited it because her maiden name is Ikushima, written with the same kanji, 生島, as the shrine name. One of the two kami enshrined at the jinja is Ikushima Okami, the other is Tarushima Okami. The shrine’s home page describes Ikushima Okami as the kami creating and nourishing all things, while Tarushima  Okami empowers all beings to achieve their potential. These are quite rare kami; to the best of my knowledge the only other jinja where they are enshrined is Ikutama Jinja in Osaka’s Tennoji-ku.

The shrine’s  origin is unclear:  legend tells us that while Take-minakata-tomi-mikoto  (建御名方富命), the main kami of Suwa Jinja, was on his way to Suwa he stopped here and prepared a rice gruel, which he then offered to both  Ikushima Okami and Tarushima Okami, the dual kami of the shrine.

In 806 the shrine was allocated at least one household which had to support it by giving it half of its assessed taxes  for the year. The Engi-shiki, dating to 927, lists the shrine as the major one for Shinano Province’s Chiisagata district and also lists the dual kami among the 23 worshipped in the Jingi-kan in the  Imperial Palace.