Konomoto Shrine

This small subsidiary shrine within Ima-Hie Jingū was quietly dedicated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who unified Japan in the late 16th century, under a deliberately obscure name designed to conceal that fact. After Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu discouraged worship at his shrines as a political threat. Legend holds that the sacred object from the original Toyokuni Shrine was secretly brought here in the mid-18th century and installed behind a nominal dedication to other deities. The shrine's name is drawn from an alternate reading of Hideyoshi's original family name, Kinoshita, concealing its connection while quietly maintaining it.