History

What is now the Senjumoto Hikawa Jinja is said to have been founded in 1307 in Ushida by the Chiba clan from the then Shimōsa Province, now Chiba-ken, with the Chibasan Saikōin Temple functioning as the bettō-ji. It was known as the Ushida Hikawa Jinja. Following the growth of Senju after it was  officially designated a post station (jushuku), a branch shrine of Ushida Hikawa Jinja was built in 1597 on land donated by the Chiba clan at the current site. In 1911, the land where Ushida Hikawa Jinja itself stood was needed for the Arakawa Drainage Project and it was merged into what had been the branch shrine. There have been suggestions that the prayer hall in the old Ushida Hikari Jinja, now the Kusushi Jinja in the current shrine, was built by the same carpenter who built the jinja enshrining Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮造営), but there is no real evidence to support this.

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Description

Just over half a kilometre from the west exit of Kitasenju Station, and houses one of the Senju Shichi Fukujin, Daikokuten. For me the most interesting aspects of this shrine are the intricate carvings on the Kusushi Jinja and the prayer hall and the koma-inu pair in front of the prayer hall.