Akiha Shrine located in Haruno-cho, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Pref. is a shrine with a long history of worship for the deity of fire prevention. Located on the upstream of the Tenryu River, which runs through Akaishi Mountain Range, it has enshrined Mt. Akiha (866 m) as the sacred body of the god. This shrine is the headquarters of all the 800 Akiha shrines in the country. It is said that the shrine was established in 701 by the Buddhist priest Gyoki; however the first hall was built in 709 according to the shrine record. The enshrined deity at Honden Hall is Hi no Kagutsuchi no Okami, or generally called Akiha Daigongen, which is the god of fire prevention and extinction. Assimilated with various fire deities all over the country, Akiha worship become popular in the Edo period (1603-1868). It is well known that the town name of Akihabara in Tokyo also comes from one of such local Akiha shrines.