Hokoku Shrine

In front of you, on a tall pedestal, Toyotomi Hideyoshi looks down at everyone who arrives. Born into a humble family, he completed the unification of Japan in the late 16th century and ordered the construction of Osaka Castle. Here he is not remembered simply as a historical figure: at this shrine he is worshipped as a kami, a deity.

1A god called Hideyoshi

After his death in 1598, Hideyoshi was deified in Kyoto. The Tokugawa, who took power after him, made sure his cult faded away. It took the Meiji era for his reputation to be restored: in 1879 this shrine was founded on Nakanoshima, in central Osaka, as a branch of the one in Kyoto. In 1961 it moved here, inside the castle grounds.

Alongside Hideyoshi, the shrine also honors his son Hideyori and his half-brother Hidenaga.

2A statue that came back

The first statue of Hideyoshi in the castle went up in 1903, but in 1943 it was melted down for the war effort, like so many bronzes in Japan. The one you see today, about three meters tall, is by the sculptor Nakamura Shin'ya and was unveiled in 2007.

Every 18 August, the anniversary of his death, the shrine holds the Taikō Festival.

3What to look for

• The statue of Hideyoshi on its high pedestal.
• The paulownia crest, symbol of the Toyotomi, on curtains and lanterns.
• The Shūseki-tei rock garden by Shigemori Mirei (1972), if you step inside.