Mishima Taisha Shrine（三嶋大社）, Shizuoka

Mishima Taisha or Mishima Grand Shrine is located in Mishima city, Shizuoka. It worships "Mishima Daimyo-Jin （三嶋大明神）" which is comprised of two different deities; Oo-Yamatsumi（大山積: the great mountain deity）and Kotoshiro-nushi（事代主: the divine master of things）. It is unclear exactly when the shrine was established, but at least it is thought to be more than 1,200 years old since the shrine's name is enlisted in the official list of shrines published by the imperial court about  1,200 years ago.

Mishima=Izu islands
The name "Mishima" means Izu islands（伊豆諸島）spreading out from Izu peninsula (in the east of Shizuoka Pref.) to the Philippine ocean. Most of the islands are protuberant submarine volcanoes and some of them are still active. In the ancient time, Mishima Taisha was considered a place of faith against the volcanic activities; eruption may harm peoples' lives, so they came to worship something divine to secure their safety and stop its eruption.

In this sense, the shrine's deity "Mishima Daimyo-Jin" was firstly reckoned as a local deity representing the islands per se but later Oo-Yamatsumi, a mountain deity, was started to be seen as its main deity, possibly due to the volcano-and-mountain linkage. That said, there was some controversy that Kotoshiro-nushi, a master of "things", was a true deity for the shrine. Taking a compromised way, nowadays Oo-yamatsumi and Kotoshiro-nushi was annexed and it has been seen as the one deity "Mishima Daimyo-Jin".

Mishima Shrine and Genji clan
Minamoto-no Yoritomo（源頼朝）is the first samurai who established a shogunate government for politics outside the imperial court, with a status of "shogun" given by the Emperor（将軍：the Great General of Samurai)

When he was 14 years old, his father, a grand master of Genji clan（源氏）, got burnt in a political battle and defeated by his rival; Taira-no Kiyomori, a head of the other samurai clan. Upon his father's execution after the defeat, Yoritomo took over his father's position and was expelled to Izu area.

During his 20-year life in Izu, he worshiped Mishima Shrine and its deity very much. Legendarily, he received a message from the shrine's divinity and decided to form a military to destroy Kiyomori and his Heike clan. Eventually, he terminated Heike's reign and established a shogunate in Kamakura, Kanagawa.

Yoritomo did not lose worship to the shrine even after his triumph,  and his shogunate took over his personal worship as "official duty" for the shogunate and samurai. Since then, the shrine had received worship (including huge donations) from various samurai. The link between the samurai clan and this shrine can be seen in the shrine's special event "Yabusame shinji（流鏑馬神事）" held on August 17 every year at present.

Yabusame is an archery with horse riding; a man wearing samurai outfits takes aim at targets and releases arrows with riding on a horse.  Yoritomo and his shogunate held this as a sacred event to pray for peace and good harvests in the shrine, so the Yabusame's rule/manners are said to be remained as it was in the past; you can grasp a sense of being samurai at sight of this event.

In addition, Yoritomo's wife (Masako) donated her box to keep her personal belongings（手箱/tebako） to this shrine. The box is decorated with valuable techniques and the items inside are also completely preserved in the box. As the decorated belonging-box with the items inside, it was given the status of "National Treasure" in Japan. At present, the shrine keeps its replica in a museum annexed to the shrine building, while the genuine one is preserved in Tokyo National Museum.