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Nearest station

Ishikawadai

Tōkyū Ikegami Line

Tōkyō-to, Ōta-ku, Higashi-Yukigaya 2-25-1

東京都大田区東雪谷2-25-1

八幡神社雪谷

   Yukigaya Hachiman Jinja

Home page: (Japanese)

October 13, 2017

History

The shrine legend is that sometime during the Eiroku Period (1557-1569), Ōta Shinrokurō, a retainer of Hōjō Ujiyasu and the great-grandson of Ōta Dōkan, was on an inspection tour of clan properties in Yukigaya when a stone monument bearing a Lotus Sutra mandala was unearthed. Interpreting this as an auspicious omen, he enshrined Hachiman Dai Bosatsu on the spot. During the Edo Period two temples were founded in Yukigaya, Chōkei-ji (長慶寺) founded in 1598, and Enchō-ji (円長寺), 1630, and these served in alternate years as the bettō-ji for what was by then the Hachiman Jinja. Towards the end of the Bakufu, in 1863 to be precise, the main hall was rebuilt, followed by the prayer hall in 1870 and the inner sanctuary in 1895. The twentieth century saw the destruction of the shrine in the fire bombings of 1945; in 1959 it was rebuilt. 

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Description

About 150 m from exit 2 of Ishikawadai station. The visually most interesting aspect of this shrine is doubtless the main hall, but there is much else worth looking at, even if of historical

Enshrined Kami:  

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Main

Hondawake-no-mikoto     誉田別命

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In-ground Shrines: 

Yaku Jinja               薬神社

Inari Jinja               稲荷神社

Tenjin-sha             天神社

Katō Jinja            加藤神社

Sarutahiko Jinja    猿田彦神社

Sui Jinja                  水神社

Oyamazumi Jinja 大山祇神社

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Earliest mention of:  1557?

Annual Festival:    Middle Saturday/Sunday of September

rather than aesthetic appeal. Four of the in-ground shrines (massha) are grouped together in one small hall, while the seven-item group of stone monuments (kōshin) has been declared a cultural asset (bunkazai) by Ōta-ku. These were all commisisoned by local people and were originally scattered around the then village of Yukigaya but over a period of two centuries (1661-1857) were moved into the shrine grounds. The Nichiren Buddhist sect was very strong in the area and this is reflected in the style of the kōshin

(Click on images to expand them)

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