Suwa Jinja 諏訪神社 | Tokyo, Ota-ku

Nearest station

Yaguchi-no-watashi

Tōkyū Tamagawa Line

Tōkyō-to, Ōta-ku, Tamagawa 2-10-22

東京都大田区多摩川2-10-22

多摩川諏訪神社

Tamagawa Suwa Jinja

Home page: none

Facebook page (Japanese)

March 3, 2018

Enshrined Kami:

Main

Tateminakata-no-mikoto (111) 建御名方命

Yasakatome-no-mikoto 　　　　八坂戸売命

From Merged Shrines

None

In-ground Shrines:

Tenso Jinja 天祖神社

Hikawa Jinja 氷川神社

Mitake Jinja 御嶽神社

Kobayashi Inari Jinja 小林稲荷神社

Earliest mention of: 834-848

Annual Festival: August 23

History

The shrine legend has it that the Tamagawa Suwa Jinja was founded sometime during the Jōwa Period (834-848) as a bunshi of Suwa Taisha through the bunrei procedure. There is another theory which says that the foundation was actually about 600 years ago during the Muromachi Period. Until the end of the bakufu, an adjoining temple, Tōfuku-ji (東福寺, it has the same address as the shrine) served as the shrine’s betto-ji. It seems that there were in fact two shrines, the Kami-sha (Upper Shrine), which was in the temple’s grounds (the temples was, and still is, also known as Suwasan-Muryō-ji) and the Shimo-sha (Lower Shrine), which was about 300 metres away. Tateminakata-no-mikoto was enshrined in the Kami-sha, Yasakatome-no-mikoto in the Shimo-sha. This Upper and Lower shrine arrangement mirrored the set-up at the Suwa Taisha; it came to an end in 1880, however, when the Shimo-sha was merged into the Kami-sha. Tamagawa Suwa Jinja is now a kenmu-sha of Tokumochi Jinja, located in nearby Ikegami.

Description

About 600 metres to the south of Yaguchi-no-Watashi Station. Both the main torii and the shagōhyō were erected in 1943, the main hall in 2002. Passing through the torii into the sandō Tōfuku-ji is directly to the left. Between the torii and the main hall there are two pairs of koma-inu. The first, erected in November 1940 to commemorate the 2,600th anniversary of the coronation of the first emperor, Jimmu, in 660 B.C., are, appropriately enough, in the "Country Defending" (護国) style. The inscription to the right commemorates this. Further on is a smaller, much more expressive pair put up in 1871. Looking at the four in-ground shrines, Kobayashi Inari JInja is housed in its own shrine, while the other three, Tenso, Hikawa, and Mitake, share a shrine building.

(Click on images to expand them)