普通の外にいくつかの著名な品質を持っている、と畏敬の念を起こさせるあるいかなるビーイングは、カミと呼ばれています。
Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 6-21-1
東京都新宿区新宿6-21-1
西向天神社
Nishimuki Ten Jinsha
Home page: none
May 18, 2019
Nearest station
Higashishinjuku
Fukutoshin & Ōedo Subway Lines
History
The shrine legend tells us that it was founded in 1228 by a Kyōto-based Buddhist monk, Myōe: the kami of the Kyōto Tenman-Gū, Sugawara Michizane, was enshrined through the kanjō process. Myōe was convinced that branches of the Godaison temples should be established in eastern Japan. To this end he went to Kantō, taking with him one or more statues of Sugawara Michizane. When finding himself is what was then Higashi-Ōkubo he built a small shrine, which in due course became the Nishimuki Ten Jinja. The shrine was built on the western side of a small hill, “Nishimuki” means “facing west” and there is a theory that it was so positioned in order to be facing in the direction of Dazaifu, where Sugawara's main shrine is..Sometime during the Tensei Period (1573～1593), a crown prince,
Enshrined Kami:
Main
(Note: numbers in parentheses after kami names
refer to position in How Many Kami table)
From Merged Shrines
Inari Ōkami 稲荷大神
Itsukushima Ōkami 厳島大神
Akiba Ōkami 秋葉大神
In-ground Shrines:
Fujizuka 富士塚
Annual Festival: May 25
Dōkō-hosshinnō (道晃法親王), the 11th or 13th son, it is not clear which, of the 107th Emperor Go-Yōzei was in the area and seeing that the shrine had been burnt down ordered a high-ranking monk, Genshin, to have it rebuilt.
In the first half of the seventeenth century the shrine became known as Natsume Tenjin (棗天神). Sometime during the Kan'ei Period (1624～1645) the third Tokugawa Shōgun, Iemitsu, was in the area on a falconry outing and when he saw how dilapidated the shrine was he presented it with a gold natsume (棗, a container used in the tea ceremony). Apparently this was valuable enough that it was sold and the proceeds used to rebuild the shrine. In 1842 a Fujizuka was raised. It was pulled down once but raised again in 1925. In 1872 the shrine was designated a village shrine and in 1874 its name was changed to Kitano Jinja. In 1901 the name was formally changed to Nishimuki Tenjin to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Sugawara Michizane's death in 903.
Description
Three minutes' walk from Higashi Shinjuku Station. Not a great deal to see in this shrine. There are two pairs of koma-inu in the shrine grounds,one at the top of the sando, the other in front of the prayer hall. The former dates to 1846, the latter to 1762.
In one corner of the shrine there is a stone monument engraved with a song ( “kahi”, 歌碑, the engraving is usually a waka, but in this case it is a pop song. The song in question is “Shinjuku no onna”, (a Shinjuku Girl, 新宿の女), the singer was Fuji Keiko (藤圭子). It was her debut song, it was released in September 1969, and she apparently kicked off her sales campaign for the song at the shrine.
(Click on images to expand them)
