Uesugi Shrine is located in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, and takes its name from Kenshin Uesugi, the famous warlord of the Warring States period. The shrine lies inside Matsugasaki Park, famous for its cherry blossoms, and overflows with people every year on April 29th during the Yonezawa Uesugi Festival.

The park itself is the remains of Yonezawa Castle, while the shrine is built on the site where the main castle keep used to stand.

After the famous Battle of Kawanakajima between Kenshin Uesugi and Shingen Takeda, Kenshin passed away inside Echigoyama Castle on March 13th of the 6th year of the Tenshou Era (1578). His remains were moved many times in the past. When the territory of the second generation Kagekatsu Uesugi was moved to Aizu in 1598, Hideharu Hori, newly appointed Lord of the Echigo Territory, requested that Kenshin's remains be moved also. Kagekatsu did as he was told, moving the remains to a memorial inside Aizu Wakamatsu Castle. The remains were transported once more in 1601 when the territory of Kagekatsu was again moved to Yonezawa. This time the remains were moved to a memorial inside Yonezawa Castle.

A shrine with the remains in the center, a Zenkouji-nyorai statue on the left, and a statue of Vishnu on the right, was constructed in 1612. The shrine was then reconstructed in the 4th year of the Meiji period, and the remains of Youzan were added along with those of Kenshin. Henceforth, the shrine came to be called Uesugi Shrine.