Shoin Shrine

This shrine is dedicated to Shoin Yoshida, the driving force behind the Meiji Restoration, and was built in 1907 by his pupil Hirobumi Ito, who served as the first, fifth, seventh, and tenth Prime Minister of Japan, and others.

In 1890, Shoin’s brother built a small shrine in a storehouse inside the residence of Shoin’s parents, the Sugi family, and enshrined it. Hirobumi Ito and Yasushi Nomura, both graduates of Shoukasonjuku, took the lead in building the shrine by relocating the worship hall of Miyazaki-Hachiman, a Shinto shrine located within Hagi Castle.

The present shrine was newly built in 1955, and the old shrine pavilion in the storehouse style from the time of its construction is now the Matsumon Shrine, the end shrine dedicated to the students of Matsushita Village Juku.

The Shoukason-juku still exists in the precincts of the shrine.
At this Shoukasonjuku, Shoin educated Genzui Kusaka, Shinsaku Takasugi, Hirobumi Ito, Toshimaro Yoshida, Kyuichi Irie, Issei Maehara, Yajiro Shinagawa, Akiyoshi Yamada, Yasushi Nomura, Shozo Watanabe, and Gijiro Kawakita (Aritomo Yamagata and Kogoro Katsura were Shoin’s students at Meirinkan and did not enter the school).

Shouin’s Shoukasonjuku was not a one-way school where the master taught his students, but rather a “living school” where Shouin exchanged opinions with his students and where students not only studied literature but also climbed mountains and swam.

There is also a Shoin Shrine in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.
Shoin’s students, including Shinsaku Takasugi, were reburied there from his grave at Kaikyoin Temple in Kozukahara.

On November 21, 1882 (Meiji 15), a shrine dedicated to Shoin was built by his followers near his grave.

In the precincts of the shrine, there is a reconstruction of Shoukasonjuku, which is a replica of the Shoukasonjuku preserved in the precincts of Shouin Shrine in Hagi.