The ichinomiya of Kii Province

What the Japanese sources say

Three shrines are treated as the ichinomiya, the shrine ranked first in the province: Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu (日前神宮・國懸神宮), Nifutsuhime Jinja (丹生都比売神社) and Itakiso Jinja (伊太祁曽神社). All three rest their claims on different kinds of grounds.

Itakiso Jinja’s own website says it is “a shrine entered in the Engishiki Jinmyōchō (延喜式神名帳), the register of official shrines in the Engishiki, a law code completed in 927 — a shikinaisha — ranked myōjin taisha and included in the tsukinami, niiname and ainame offerings”, and that it “has received the reverence of court and country as the ichinomiya of Kii (Ki) Province”. It also relates that the shrine was originally enshrined on the grounds of Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu and was later moved to its present site.

Nifutsuhime Jinja’s own website says that “by the power of its deity it drove back the Mongol invasions, and the shrine was made the ichinomiya of Kii Province”. It is the guardian shrine of Mount Kōya as a whole, and its grounds — the Mongol invasions of the 13th century — are more recent than those of the other two.

As for Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu, Wakayama Prefecture’s official tourism site calls it only “a great shrine of two shrines in one”, and no primary source for calling it the ichinomiya could be found.

— Worship was divided between Nagusa District (the Wakayama plain, on the side of the provincial capital, or kokufu) and Ito District (the Mount Kōya side), and it looks as though the authority of the ancient provincial chieftain (kuni no miyatsuko) line and the medieval authority of Mount Kōya reached the title of ichinomiya by separate routes (this is our own reading).

Written from Japanese sources, each quoted. The Japanese page has the same discussion with the original wording.