Description

This Sugiyama shrine is located about 500m away from Center Minami’s exit #4 on the eastern fringe of Tzuzuki Central Park. Perhaps its most visually interesting aspect is the Ryōbu torii midway on the stairs leading up to the main hall.

​

The Shin-pen-Musashi-Fudo-Kiko tells us that in 674 during the reign of the 40th emperor, Tenmu,  the kannushi (chief priest) of the Awaji Jinja in Awa Province, now Chiba-ken, Inbe Katsumaro, set up a shrine on a hill in Musashi Province’s Sugiyama where three kami were worshipped. One of these was Ame-no-hiwashi-no-mikoto, the ancestral kami of the Awa branch of the Inbe family. The Inbe had pioneered the cultivation of hemp and grains in Awa and were doing the same in Musashi: along with their agricultural development came shrines. Unfortunately there is no other record of Inbe Katsumaro having set up this Sugiyama Jinja so it cannot be assumed that this is the Engi-shiki Sugiyama Jinja.