The shrine is widely known and beloved by Fukuoka citizens as “Okushida-san”, the chief guardian of the city of Hakata.
The shrine is also the site of Hakata Gion Yamakasa, a summer festival famous throughout Japan, and Hakata Okunchi, an autumn festival.
Located near the southern entrance to the Kamikawabata shopping street, the shrine is always crowded with worshippers who wish for prosperous business.
Kushida shrine is said to have been founded in 757, when the deity Ohatanushi no Okami was invoked from the Kushida Shrine in Ise-Matsuzaka.
Other than Ohatanushi no Okami, the other shrined deities are Amaterasu Omikami and Susanoo no Mikoto.
Kushida Shrine was devastated by repeated fires during the Warring States period, but the present shrine was built in 1587 when Hakata was restored by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), the ruler of that period.
A huge and impressive Hakata Gion Yamakasa decorative float, 13 meters high, is displayed in the precincts of the temple (except in June).
There is also a 1,000-year-old sacred tree called “Kushida no Ginko” near the entrance of the shrine, and two Mongolian anchor stones are placed at the base of the tree.
The Mongolian anchor stone is a rock that was used as an anchor for ships by the Chinese army (* then Yuan Dynasty), which invaded Kyushu twice (1274 and 1281) with an army of tens of thousands of men and was repulsed each time by the Japanese samurai.
