Yoshida shrine, located on Yoshida Mountain in Kyoto is a small seemingly unpretentious shrine complex. However, this little known shrine is entirely unique amongst the thousands of Shinto shrines throughout Japan due to the ambition of Yoshida Kanetomo. This shrine, in the care of the Yoshida family for centuries, came under control of Yoshida Kanetomo in the 15th century. Yoshida began to make changes in the form of Shinto practiced there and built a new shrinet on the complex. This new shrine hinted at Yoshida's desire for power; its octagonal shape and eight pillars were exclusive to the new shrine. The number 8 is closely tied to the royal family and reflects imperial power, something Yoshida seemed to want to imitate. Yoshida then declared that Amaterasu, the sun goddess herself was enshrined at this new shrine, however not as the main kami but as a subsidiary deity to Kuni-no-Tokotachi. Yoshida changed contemporary Shinto by elevating Kuni-no-Tokotachi from relative oblivion to the supreme kami of the universe, creating his own sect of Shinto. The main shrine to Kuni-no-Tokotachi, hidden behind a closed gate is flanked by smaller shrines to Amaterasu and Toyouke and surrounded by a wall of shrines dedicated to all the other kami in Japan. However, Yoshida's reinterpretation of Shinto was not the only unusual addition he made to the religion. After his death Yoshida was buried on the shrine complex and a small shrine was built over his body, his spirit enshrined there. This bold action created a precedent for interring the spirits of important men as kami, which is still practiced within Shinto.
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