top of page

Nearest station

Kitami

Odakyū Line

Tōkyō-to, Setagaya-ku, Kitami 4-26-1

東京都世田谷区喜多見4-26-1

喜多見氷川神社

   Kitami Hikawa Jinja

Home page: (Japanese)

October 1, 2017

History

It is said this Hikawa Jinja was founded in 740 with the shintai being a crudely carved, two shaku high, image of Susano-o. There is, however, no evidence for this as during the Enbun Period (1356-1360) first fire, and then flooding from the nearby Tama River, destroyed any documentary or other types of evidence which might have existed. In 1570, the lord of the Kitami area, a certain Edo Yoritada (江戸頼忠), restored the by then derelict  shrine. He was a descendant of Edo Shigenaga (江戸重長), the second patriarch of the Edo clan who is credited as having given his name to the settlement which became Edo. In 1593 a descendant of Yoritada, Edo Katsutada, changed the family name to Kitami in order to demonstrate fealty to the Tokugawas, and in 1649 the fourth Tokugawa Shōgun, Iemitsu, awarded the shrine a stipend of 10 koku 2 to, and it thereafter continued to enjoy the Tokugawa largesse. In 1682 the then Lord Kitami awarded the shrine a 5- koku 2-to stipend and this was followed five years later by its rebuilding. Jumping forward two centuries, 1873 saw the shrine designated as a village shrine, in 1874 it was elevated to a Gōsha. In 1922 a plan was drawn up to rebuild the main hall, but the devastation caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake of the following year meant that the work was not finished until 1926. Disaster struck again in 1988, however, when the main hall was destroyed by fire. 1990 saw the rebuilding.

Enshrined Kami:  

Main

(Note: numbers in parentheses after kami names

refer to position in How Many Kami table)

Susano-o-no mikoto (57      素盞嗚尊

 

From Merged Shrines

Amaterasu Ōkami (55)         天照大

Inada-hime-mikoto               稲田姫命

In-ground Shrines: 

Inari Jinja            稲荷神社

Tenjin Sha           天神社

Ōyamazumi Jinja  大山祇神社

Tsukiyomi Jinja     月讀神社

Izumo Jinja          出雲神社

Ōtori Jinja              大鳥神社

Sorei Sha            祖霊社

 

Earliest mention of:   740

Annual Festival:  October 2 

Description

About 1.4 km, 15 minutes on foot, from Kitami Station. There are Hikawa Jinja in the neighbouring towns of Unane and Ōkura and the three are referred to as the Sansho-Myōjinja (三所明神社). The two most appealing aspects of the shrine for me are the long and peaceful sandō  (approach road) and the expression on the face of the koma-inu with the closed mouth in front of the main hall. The second torii on the sandō was designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property by Setagaya-ku in February 1986. Erected in 1654 and made of white mica granite in the Shinmei style it is the oldest stone torii in Setagaya-ku.

(Click on images to expand them)

bottom of page