The oldest mountain sacred site in Hokkaido, this shrine is said to have been founded in the Kakichi (1441-1443) era in a cave near the summit of Mount Ota (485 m above sea level), which rises on a precipitous cliff. In the past, the Ainu people living in this area called the mountain spirit "Otakamoi" and worshipped it as a guardian deity of the Ezo region. Nobuhiro Takeda, the founder of the Matsumae clan, landed in the Ota area in 1453. When Nobuhiro saw the Ainu people praying to the mountain, he climbed the mountain himself and believed that there was a spirit god in the cave. Since then, the shrine has been dedicated to the safety of voyages and to a spiritual deity. Since then, the shrine has been worshipped as a place for safe voyages and the blessing of spiritual deities. In 1818, an inner shrine was built in a cave on the mountain, and in 1867, a worship hall was constructed at the foot of the mountain. In 1871, the Buddhist body and ritual articles of Ota Gongen were abolished and the shrine was renamed "Ota Shrine" to worship "Sarutahiko no Mikami" in accordance with a decree banning the syncretization of Shinto and Buddhism. (The abandoned Buddhist ritual objects are now enshrined at "Ushionji Temple" in the Ota district.) In 1921, the entire cave was destroyed by a fire started by a visitor, and in September, the main hall was rebuilt and a new women's shrine was constructed. In 1932, the shrine was ranked "No. 1 Sacred Sites in Southern Hokkaido" by the Hokkaido Times Newspaper, and today it is known as one of the "Five Great Sacred Sites in Southern Hokkaido" and is visited by many worshippers. In the old days, it was inaccessible by land, and people used to travel by boat to the foot of Mount Ota to visit the shrine. In the old days, celebrities such as Enku Shonin, a monk from Mino Province, Sugae Masumi, a traveler in the Edo period, and Matsuura Takeshiro, an explorer, visited the shrine and wrote tanka poems and travelogues. The red seal is available at "Kuon-jinja Shrine.

Deity: Sarutahiko Ookami
Date of the regular festival: June 28