According to the shrine's legend, the Kagoshima Jingū during the
Age of the Gods, as Takachiho Palace, the residence of
Hikohohodemi no Mikoto (彦火火出見尊), the third and youngest son of
Ninigi-no-Mikoto and
Konohanasakuya-hime and ancestor of
Emperor Jimmu. It was moved to its current location in 708, and Setsusha Sekitai-gu (Ishitai Shrine) is currently located on the former site. Takaya-no-yamanoe
misasagi, said to be the mausoleum of Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, is located 13 kilometers northwest of the shrine. It is also said that this former shrine is where the
Hachiman deity appeared in the fifth year of
Emperor Kinmei's reign (544), which is why the shrine was called the Sho-Hachiman-gū, or "true Hachiman shrine". Per the
Hachiman Godokun (八幡愚童訓), when Ōhirume, the daughter of the great king of
Chen, was seven years old, the light of the morning sun pierced her chest, and she became pregnant. The prince was born, and the royal subjects, suspicious of him, put him on an empty ship and set it afloat on the ocean, hoping to claim the area where the ship was located as their territory. The prince landed in Ōsumi and was named "Hachiman" by
Emperor Keitai, although some other accounts state that the princess was on the ship, and gave birth after his arrived in Ōsumi. Per the
Konjaku Monogatari, Hachiman later relocated to
Usa and eventually to
Iwashimizu. For centuries there was a rivalry between
Usa Hachimangū and Kagoshima Jingū over which one had the legitimate deity, and Usa Hachimangū secretly sent messengers to Kagoshima sent 15 (or even 14) messengers to burn down Kagoshima Jingū. As that happened, the character for "Shō-Hachiman(正八幡)" appeared in the black smoke rising from the burning shrine. These messengers were so frightened that they fled to
Mizobe, where they were punished by the gods and 13 died one after another. The local people then took pity on those who had died, and built mounds at the places where they had fallen. These mounds are located in the northern part of the Kokubu Plain. The Jusanzukabara (Thirteen Mounds) Historic Site Park derives its name from this legend and is located in the northeastern part of the area, near
Kagoshima Airport. The first mention of the shrine in reliable historical records is in the
Engishiki, compiled during the reign of
Emperor Daigo, which lists it as the only
Shikinai Taisha in southern Kyushu (Hyuga, Osumi, and Satsuma). During the
Kenkyū era (1190 - 1199), the shrine's territory was over 2,500
chō, and it held estates with 1,000
koku until the end of the
Edo period. The shrine was patronized by the
Shimazu clan of
Satsuma Domain from the
Sengoku period. In 1871, under the
Meiji government's
State Shinto ranked Shinto shrines, the Kagoshima Jingū was initially ranked as an . It was promoted to an in 1874 and to an in 1895. After the war, the shrine became a part of the
Association of Shinto Shrines.
Archaeological excavations have been carried out since 1994. Within the current precincts a large number of shards of Chinese and Thai ceramics from the 14th to the first half of the 15th century have been found, indicating that the shrine was involved in overseas trade with mainland Asia from the
Kamakura period to the
Muromachi period. ==See also==