This shrine was erected in 859, inviting a branch deity from Usa-jingu Shrine in Usa City, Oita Prefecture. The deity, fondly called Seki no Ujigami by local people, is worshiped as the guardian deity of 60 districts in Shimonoseki City. The shrine precincts are filled with historic features, including a granite torii gate that is among the largest of its kind in Japan, the remains of Okame-jaya (tea house), where Ito Hirobumi, Japan's first prime minister, first met his future wife, a literary monument to Hayashi Fumiko, a novelist closely related to Shimonoseki City, and a monument to a poem by Kaneko Isuzu.