History

Exactly when the shrine was established is unclear, but it is said that it was founded in what is now Hongō 1-chōme in the Tenryaku Period (947-957).  In 1616 it was moved to what is now the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens on the orders of the second Tokugawa Shogun, Hidetada. In 1655 it was moved to its present location. In 1690, out of reverence to his mother, Keishōin, the fifth Tokugawa Shogun, Tsunayoshi, presented the shrine with a plot of land yielding some 30 koku (5,400 litres) of rice. 

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Description

A 3 minute walk from Hakusan Station. is is one of the Ten Tōkyō Shrines. In the shrine grounds there is an old cherry tree, from which, as the story goes,  Minamoto no Yoshiie hung a banner in 1051 to pray for victory in the military campaign in Mutsu Province which he was making his way to. The cherry tree, which still grows there, is known as the Flag Cherry, and the story is commemorated in one of the stone monuments which dot the shrine grounds, it was erected in 1896. Another memorial commemorates Sun Yat-sen, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China. When he was in Japan he was often helped by  Miyazaki Tōten, a revolutionary activist who was committed to bringing about revolution in Asia. In 1910 Sun was staying with Miyazaki and they had a habit of going to Hakusan Jinja and holding forth on the future of China and its inevitable revolution (presumably through an interpreter as apparently neither was able to speak the other's language). In May 1910 they were at the shrine one evening when they saw a shooting star: seeing this strengthened Sun’s determination to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.  The shrine's ajisai (hydrangea) festival in June is highly regarded.