History

A long time ago in the sky above a woods near the present site of the shrine, auspicious clouds (瑞雲, zui-un) often drifted by. One day when the sky was a clear blue a white cloud descended and the astonished people of the village fled into the woods: as they did this a flock of white doves suddenly took off and flew to the west.  The villagers took this as evidence that there was a kami present in the woods and built a hokora there, giving it the name “hato-no-mori,”  lit. "dove woods".

Moving into historical times, 860 A.D., the Tendai priest Ennin was on a preaching tour in Kantō and the villagers of Hatonomori entreated him to consecrate a shintai in their hokora: he created statues of  Emperor Ōjin, Empress Jingū, and Kasuga Ōkami, enshrined them, thus bestowing true Hachiman credentials on the  shrine. Sometime in the Kyūju period (1154-1156), a statue of the Buddhist god Amitābha by a priest called Enshin (恵心) was placed in the reconstructed main building in the spirit of the Honji Suijaku concept.

The shrine was almost entirely destroyed in the fire-bombing of May 26, 1945, and it was not until 1981 that reconstruction

work was finally completed. In 1993 though the main hall was remodelled to something like its original design.