History

Founded in 1469 by Ōta Dōkan to afford spiritual protection to Edo castle. The kami of Musashi Ōmiya Hikawa Jinja was enshrined through the bunrei process.  It is said that thereafter the Ōta family made a special tamakuji offering at the shrine’s annual festival each year. The Shinpen-Musashi-Fudo-Kiko, compiled in 1809, tells us that two shrines, Hikawa Jinja and Shinmei-Sha had been combined. Shinmei-sha had been a little to the north of Hikawa Jinja on the banks of the Kanda River before being combined with Hikawa Jinja in the current location. On a torii which was erected in 1879 but has since been destroyed there was a shingaku showing its name as “Tenshō kōtai Jingū-Hikawa Jinja (天照皇大神宮・氷川神社)

During the decade beginning in 1644 the main hall was rebuilt under the auspices of its bettō-ji, the Shōzō-in Temple, situated roughly halfway between the shrine and the Kanda River. In 1926 the shrine was rebuilt in the Gongen-zukuri style with bronze roof shingles. This was followed in 1931 by the rebuilding of the Kagura-den and the shrine offices but as was so often the case the entire shrine was destroyed in the firebombing of May 25, 1945. Reconstruction after this was completed in 1958.

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