Karafuto Shrine

{{Short description|Defunct Shinto shrine formerly located in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia}} {{Refimprove|date=November 2017}} [[File:Karafuto Shrine.JPG|thumb|Karafuto Shrine, 1930s]] '''Karafuto Shrine''' (樺太神社, ''Karafuto jinja'') was a [[Shinto]] shrine in [[Toyohara]], [[Karafuto Prefecture]] in what is now [[Sakhalin Oblast]], Russia.<ref name="Japanese Journal Religious Studies Vol Issue pp A Concept of Shinto - 37 1 47–74 -">{{cite journal|last=Suga|first=Kōji|year=2010|title=A Concept of "Overseas Shinto Shrines"|journal=[[Japanese Journal of Religious Studies]]|publisher=[[Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture]]|volume=37|issue=1|pages=47–74|issn=0304-1042|oclc=423956666|url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/view/download/digidepo_9592041_po_833.pdf?contentNo=1&alternativeNo=|accessdate=19 November 2017|language=English}}</ref>

The shrine was established in 1911, and its main annual festival was held on August 23. [[Kami]] enshrined here included [[Kunitama|Okunitama]] no kami (大国魂神), [[Ōkuninushi]] (as 大己貴神) and [[Sukunabikona]] (少彦名命).

It was formerly a national shrine of the first rank (国幣大社, ''kokuhei taisha'') in the [[Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines]].

Following the Soviet occupation of southern Sakhalin, the shrine would continue to operate until repatriation was completed in 1949. It would later be demolished alongside other Japanese institutions and monuments. There are currently plaques marking the former location of the Karafuto Shrine, and two of the shrine's [[Komainu]] are now placed at the entrance of the [[Sakhalin Regional Museum]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Urbansky |first1=Sören |last2=Barop |first2=Helena |title=Under the Red Star's Faint Light: How Sakhalin Became Soviet |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History |date=2017 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=283–316 |doi=10.1353/kri.2017.0019}}</ref>

==See also== *[[Nishikubo Shrine]] [[Category:Kanpei Taisha]]

==References== {{reflist}}

[[Category:Shinto shrines in Karafuto Prefecture]] [[Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1945]] [[Category:Religious buildings and structures completed in 1911]] [[Category:20th-century Shinto shrines]]