History

The shrine notice board tells us that it was established sometime during the Bunmei Period (1469-1487) by the then lord of Setagaya Castle, Kira Yoriyasu (吉良頼康) through the Kanjō process. In the Edo Period it seems to have become a beneficiary of official approval. In 1650 an official document recording a donation of 7 shoku 4 shō to the shrine by the then administrator of the area,  Saitō Settsu, noted that there had been a similar donation previously. Further evidence of the shrine’s popularity is provided by a  note dating to 1682 that the box containing small donations made by visitors praying at the shrine had been stolen. Unfortunately, there is no written record of any of this, as the shrine’s betto-ji, the nearby Moriiwao Temple, where the shrine's records were stored, was destroyed by fire in 1812.

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The shrine was originally known as  Nanasawa-Hassha-Zuiichi Hachima-Gū (七沢八社随一正八幡宮), a name deriving from the presence of seven villages in the Setagaya area with names ending in “sawa” (沢, meaning swamp) containing a total of eight Hachiman-Gū, the most prominent (随一, Zuiichi) of which was the Kitazawa  one. This name is still displayed on the Shingaku in the main hall.