Recent Additions

November 23:   Chiyoda Inari Jinja        千代田稲荷神社

​Situated amid a red light district and overlooked by a love hotel, this is the shrine to which Junko Inari Jinja traces its origin. It was founded in 1457, apparently at the behest of Ota Dokan when he was overseeing the construction of Edo Castle and the enshrined kami was Fushimi Inari. In 1602, after Tokugawa Ieyasu had taken residence in the castle and expansion work begun, the shrine was moved to Miyamasuzaka in Shibuya.  Edo Castle had two alternate names, Kōjō (江城) and Chiyodajō (千代田城), and it is from the latter of these that the shrine’s name derives.

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November 8:    Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja  於岩稲荷田宮神社

​This is the second of the Oiwa Inari Jinja. Its history is virtually the same as that of the Shinkawa Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja described below.

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October 21: Junko Inari Jinja　順子稲荷神社

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this shrine is its name. “Junko” is a relatively common first name for Japanese females, and to the best of my knowledge very few jinja sport female given names in their own name. Its origins date back to 1759.

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October 9:   Shinkawa Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja     新川於岩稲荷田宮神社

The Oiwa in the shrine's name is a woman who lived in the Edo period. She was by all accounts an exemplary wife and single-handedly restored the fortunes of the Tamiya family she married into. After her death​ in 1636 the Tamiya family kami became popularly known as Oiwa Inari. She became the main character in a kabuki play called Yotsuya Kaidan, and this has become arguably Japan's most famous ghost story. However, its author took great dramatic license and after being cruelly manipulated by her father-in-law Oiwa commits suicide and ends up as a ghost relentlessly haunting her husband, Iemon. In real life they were said to be a very happily married couple. 

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August 12:  Suga Jinja       須賀神社

​Said to have been founded as an Inari Jinja and was the tutelary shrine for Shimuzudani, the current Akasaka and Hitotsugimura districts. In 1634 it was moved to its current location when the outer moat of Edo Castle was built.
Its name derives from what could be interpreted as a homophonic pun on something Susano-o is said to have said after his bloody annihilation of the eight-forked serpent Yamato-no-Orochi in the upper reaches of the River Hi (簸の川) in Izumo prior to taking Kushinada-hime to wife. His words were “Having come to this land my heart feels SugaSugashi (心須賀、須賀し). This expression is still used In modern Japanese but is written with just one, repeated, kanji, 清清しい, also pronounced sugasugashii. Both expressions mean refreshing, bracing, brisk. He then went to live in a nearby palace.

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July 20:  Makata Jinja  麻賀多神社

​According to the shrine legend it was founded in the 42nd year of the reign of the 12th Emperor, Keiko, (AD 112) when Yamato Takeru was on his military campaign in the east of the country. He came across a cedar tree to the trunk of which he attached a mirror and told the population that if they worshipped the mirror as the deity Inbano Kunitama-Okitsukagami good harvests would follow. He also worshipped the great deity of Ise from afar. 

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July 8:   Asahi Hikawa Jinja　朝日氷川神社

This is one of the nine Hikawa Jinja located in Kawaguchi-shi in Saitama-ken. It does have a homepage, but that concerns itself more with the for fee services the shrine offers rather than describing its history. It is subordinate to Chinjyu Hikawa Jinja. Its home page tells us that it was founded sometime during the Tensho Era (1573-1592), the first year of which marked the end of the Muromachi Period. In June 1907 two nearby Inari Jinja were merged into it. During the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 the shrine was basically destroyed, and it was July 1938 before it was rebuilt. It was rebuilt again in 2003.

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June 24:  Sumiyoshi Jinja    住吉神社

In the first year of the Genji Era (1864), the chief priest of the Hakodate Hachimangu Shrine, Kikuchi Shigeken, petitioned to have Sumiyoshi Okami recognized as the tutelary deity for both the Otarunai and Takashima localities. He was successful, and in June 1865 he began work at an approved nearby location. The following year, however,  a request for a shrine site nearer to the residence of the local daimyo was made and the Shogunate instructed the Otarunai officials to reclaim land from the nearby waterfront for use as the location for a shrine. Come the reforms of the Meiji Restoration, however, construction of the shrine was halted and it was moved temporarily to Itsukashima Jinja in Hakodate. In 1868 it was moved from Itsukashima Jinja to Otaru. In 1875 it was given Village Shrine ranking. Following a local fire in 1881 it was moved to its current location in Suminoe. Its name had been Sumie Jinja, but in January 1892 it took its current name of Sumiyoshi Jinja.

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June 3:   Chinjyu Hikawa Jinja    鎮守氷川神社

This is one of the 150 or so Hikawa Jinja in Saitama-ken, ten of which are in Kawaguchi-shi. It was founded in the early years of the Muromachi Period, sometime during the Ōei era (1394-1428), and is one of the oldest shrines in Musashi Province. Various buildings in the shrine have been rebuilt on numerous occasions and following the enactment of the Shrime Merger Order in 1906 a total of 17 local shrines were  merged into Chinjyu Hikawa Jinja in 1907. Some of these shrines till stand in the ground of yje main shrine. Of the 17, 9 were Inari

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May 15:  Ookunitama Jinja        大國魂神社

Was established to enshrine Ōkunitama Ōkami as the guardian deity of Musashi Province. Ōkunitama Ōkami is another name for Ōkuni-nushi Ōkami, the kami of Izumo Taisha, who, in olden times, is said to have come from Izumo to Musashi to spread the elements of civilization, defined as clothing, food, and shelter, to the populace.

The shrine was founded on May 5, 111 (the shrine's home page omits the customary “it is said that”) in response to an order to build a shrine delivered through an oracle by Ōkunitama. It was built by descendants ofAmeno-hohi-mikoto ( 天之菩卑能命), one of the eight children born to Amaterasu and Susano-o following the August Oath. These descendants functioned as regional administrators for Musashi.

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November 19: ​  Kasuga Taisha     春日大社

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since December 1998, this is the head shrine of the 3,000 or so Kasuga Jinja scattered around the country. It is one of the 22 Shrines and is one of the 37 shrines listed in the Engi-Shiki for Sonokami district in Yamato Province. It traces its origins to 768, when Empress Shotoku, the 45th ruler of the country, ordered Fujiwara-no-Nagate to oversee the construction of a shrine to honour four Kami,  Takemikazuchi, Futsunushi, Amenokoyane, and Hime-Gami. The site chosen was in the foothills of the sacred Mt. Mikasa, which is now known as Mt. Kasuga.The shrine is closely related to the Fujiwara Clan. 

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November 5:     Goryo Jinja         御霊神社

This shrine was founded in 800 on the instructions of the then reigning  50th emperor, Kanmu, to enshrine Princess Inoue, the spouse of the 49th emperor, Konin. The daughter of the 45th emperor, Shomu, she is formally worshipped as Empress Kogo. She and Emperor Konin were married on the latter’s ascent to the throne in 770 and in the following year their son, Osabe, became crown prince. Soon after this however, in 772, it was alleged that she had put a curse on her spouse and she and her son were deposed and incarcerated in what is now Gojo-shi in Nara-ken. On April 27, 775 they were both put to death.

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September 11: 　Suehiro Jinja　　末広神社

Another small shrine in the midst of Tokyo's Nihonbashi business district.

It is one of the Nihonbashi Shichi Fukujin (Nihonbashi Seven Lucky Gods) shrines, and houses Bishamonten.  It was the tutelary jinja for Tokyo's orignal Yoshiwara red-light district.

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August 31: Koami Jinja     小網神社

A small, very popular shrine in  the midst of Tokyo’s Nihonbashi business district. It is one of the Nihonbashi Shichi Fukujin (Nihonbashi Seven Lucky Gods) shrines, and houses Benzaiten. Traces its origins to a hermitage founded around the turn of the 10th century, but emerged in something like its present form in 466 when it was instrumental in fending off an epidemic which was sweeping the area. Probably its  main attraction is its small Tokyo Money Washing Benten Well. The popular belief is that if you wash your coins in this well and replace them in your purse or pocket prosperity will ensue.

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August 9:     Shintotaikyo Icho Hachiman-Gu           神道大教銀杏八幡宮

In 1713 the Echizen Matsudaira family of Fukui Province donated some land inside the then Tokiwabashi gate of Edo Castle to build a shrine to house the tutelary deity of the family’s Edo residence. It is said that the shrine was moved to a new location on September 27, 1775 and it took  its name from the existence  in the new site of a 300-400 year old gingko, “icho” tree.

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July 30:  Hyogo-ken Himeji Gokoku Jinja   兵庫縣姫路護國神社

Also located in the grounds of Himeji Castle, this shrine is dedicated to the  56,998 people from the southwest of Hyogo Prefecture who gave their lives for their country from the Boshin War of 1868 onwards. It is one of the 52 Gokoku Jinja loosely affiliated to Yasukuni Jinja.

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July 25: Himeji Jinja  姫路神社

Himeji Jinja is situated in Himeyama Park inside Himeji Castle, the largest castle in Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The shrine protects the castle against the inauspicious elements said to emanate from the northeast direction (“kimon”鬼門).
The shrine’s  main kami is a human being (“jinbutsu-kami”) by the name of Sakai Masachika. The Sakai clan ruled Himeji Province for 120 years until the abolition of the feudal domains and the latter's replacement with prefectures in 1871. This caused the clan to move to the newly established capital of Tokyo.  

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