Hōkoku-jinja Shrine

Hokoku-jinja honors Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), the warlord who rose from poverty to control nearly all of Japan and built the original Osaka Castle. After Hideyoshi's death, his former retainer Ieyasu Tokugawa eventually attacked the castle in 1615 and wiped out the Toyotomi family, also dismantling the original shrine. The shrine was rebuilt in 1879 by order of Emperor Meiji, the emperor in whose name the Tokugawa shogunate was itself overthrown. It originally operated as a branch of the Toyokuni-jinja in Kyoto, but became independent in 1921 and was relocated to the castle grounds in 1961, bringing the story of Osaka's most famous founder back home.