Kusatsu Hachimangu Shrine/Main Hall/Worship Hall (A-bombed building)

Kusatsu Hachiman Shrine has a long history, and is said to have been founded during the reign of Empress Suiko (593-628), at roughly the same time as Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, when Takirihime was enshrined as the guardian deity of sea routes. In the past, the shrine building was said to have been located near the beach, but each time it was rebuilt it was moved to a higher place, and now it is enshrined halfway up Mount Rikiyazan (Mount Gyoja). The current shrine building was built in 1931 (Showa 6). It was exposed to the atomic bomb 5 kilometers from the hypocenter.