Washinomiya Shrine

The oldest record of the shrine was found in the Azuma Kagami, the official historical record for the Kamakura Shogunate. It had the patronage of the Imperial family, and even Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Various folk-culture and performing art events, including the Saibara-Kagura Festival are held here. Its traditional dance handed down through generations has been designated as a national intangible folk-culture asset. Washinomiya's Hajisai festival involves a local parade and the carrying of a mikoshi. The shrine also houses several ancient relics. During the New Year season, the shrine receives no fewer than 100,000 visitors. The torii gate of the shrine collapsed in 2018 and was later replaced. ==Connections to Lucky Star==

''. In its July 2007 issue, the magazine Newtype ran an article on the various locales featuring in the popular anime and manga Lucky Star, and provided directions on how to reach these places from the otaku hotspot Akihabara, including the Washinomiya Shrine which had its torii shown in the opening sequence and featured the Hiiragi sisters working as miko in the anime. Shortly afterwards, massive otaku "pilgrimages" to the shrine became the most widely reported consequence of the feature's publication. It became a place teeming with photographers trying to replicate scenes from the anime, cosplayers wandering around, This social phenomenon was subsequently satirized in the twenty-first episode of the anime. On December 2, 2007, Kagami Yoshimizu and 4 cast members of Lucky Star held a brunch and "official" visit of the shrine. A highlight of the visit was a guided tour by the voice actors of the "Hiiragi sisters" (Emiri Kato and Kaori Fukuhara) leading the other two VA's and fans around the real shrine. Every year since, some Lucky Star fans travel to Kuki to help carry the Lucky Star mikoshi and help with the traditional mikoshi. It is a symbiotic relationship. Both mikoshi were also featured in the 2010 Shanghai Expo. ==References==