Usa Hachiman Jingūji

Usa Hachiman Jingūji is a shrine-temple complex at Usa in Buzen on Kyushu, dedicated to Hachiman, the deified Emperor Ōjin and tutelary god of warriors. Founded in the Wadō era of 708–714, it was the first Hachiman shrine and ranked second only to the Ise Shrine.

In 749 its portable shrine carried Hachiman's spirit to Nara to protect the casting of the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji. An oracle from Usa was invoked in the dispute over the monk Dōkyō's claim to the throne under Empress Shōtoku. In 779 Miroku-ji was built beside the shrine, creating what is regarded as Japan's first jingū-ji, a combined shrine and temple.

Usa's branches included Iwashimizu Hachimangū in 859 and Tsurugaoka Hachimangū in 1063. In the sixteenth century the Funai lord Ōtomo Yoshishige repeatedly attacked the shrine; his wife, the priestess Lady Nata, helped defend it.