Last Updated: May 7, 2025

Katori Jingu

A Sacred Shrine in Homage to the Blade

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

Note: This article was first written during the early months of the pandemic. The info about the destination is still solid though….

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Donny Kimball

As I write this article, it’s the tail end of May 2020. Currently, Tokyo and the last few remaining prefectures have ended their states of emergency. The government is still calling for people to avoid cross-prefectural travel though. Sadly, this means that I am still grounded and cannot source any new articles. So, with that in mind, I am going to make the best of this situation and use the time to properly introduce Katori Jingu, a place that I have only mentioned in passing thus far. Truth be told, I’ve actually wanted to do a stand-alone piece on Katori Jingu for some time but haven’t had the opportunity to do so.

Don’t recognize Katori Jingu from my other works? Don’t worry! All you really need to understand is that this shrine in Chiba Prefecture is about as ancient as they come. Per the official records, Katori Jingu was established over two millennia ago along with its sibling sepulcher, the similarly antediluvian Kashima Jingu in nearby Ibaraki Prefecture…