is a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

located in

Ōmiya-ku, Saitama is one of ten wards of the city of Saitama, in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, and is located in the northeastern part of the city. , the ward had an estimated population of 119,298 and a population density of 9,300 persons per km². Its total area wa ...

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

, Japan. It is one of the two shrines claiming the title of ''

ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

'' of former

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, S ...

. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on August 1. The district of Omiya, literally "Great Shrine", derives from the special favor shown by

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

, who raised Hikawa above all other shrines in the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...

.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962). ''Studies in Shinto and Shrines,'' p. 391. It is the head of a network of approximately 280 Hikawa shrines mostly around the

Enshrined ''kami''

The ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' enshrined at Hikawa Jinja are: * , brother of

Amaterasu Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (''kami'') of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the ''Kojik ...

, god of sea, storms, fields, the harvest, marriage, and love * , wife of Susanoo, goddess of rice, agriculture, marriage, love, childbirth, and child rearing * , god of nation-building, agriculture, medicine, and protective magic

History

According to the shrine's tradition, the shrine was established during the reign of the legendary

Emperor Kōshō , also known as was the fifth legendary emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Kōshō is known as a "l ...

in 473 BC, when the ruling clan of the area, the Musashi ''

kuni no miyatsuko , also read as "kokuzō" or "kunitsuko", were officials in ancient Japan at the time of the Yamato court. Yamato period Kuni no miyatsuko governed small territories (), although the location, names, and borders of the provinces remain unclear. Kun ...

'' migrated to this region from

Izumo Izumo (出雲) may refer to: Locations * Izumo Province, an old province of Japan * Izumo, Shimane, a city located in Shimane Prefecture ** Izumo Airport * Izumo-taisha, one of Japan's most ancient and important Shinto shrines Ships * ''Izumo ...

, bring with them the worship Susanoo. There is also a legend that the folk hero

Yamato Takeru , originally , was a Japanese semi-legendary prince of the Yamato dynasty, son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan. His name written in kanji can vary, in the '' Nihon Shoki'' it is spelled 日本武尊 ...

who injured his leg during his expedition to conquer eastern Japan for the Yamato kingdom, visited the shrine in accordance with the directions of an old man who appeared in a dream. After worshiping, he was able to stand on his own. It is known that the old name of the region, , literally meaning "leg stand", was named after this incidence. The pond within the grounds of the shrine is a remnant of

Minuma or is an area of paddy fields and other agricultural fields along the Minuma Irrigational Canal in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. The area encompasses 1260 hectares and straddles across five wards of the city of Saitama ( Kita-ku, Ōmiya-ku, ...

and considered to have roots in enshrining the water god of Minuma (a vast swamp that existed until the middle of the Edo period), with the shrine built on a hill or promontory which extended into the swamp. The shrine first appears in the historical record in an entry in the ''

Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku , abbreviated as Sandai Jitsuroku, is an officially commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 901, it is the sixth and final text in the Six National Histories series. It covers the years 858–887. Background Following the earlier natio ...

'' which was compiled in 901. In the ''

Engishiki The is a Japanese book about laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History In 905, Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ...

'' records, it is listed as a . During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

Taira no Sadamori Taira no Sadamori (平貞盛)(10th century) was a samurai of the Taira clan who was involved in suppressing the revolt of Taira no Masakado in the 930s-940. He was the son of Taira no Kunika and grandson of Taira no Takamochi, the founder of the ...

prayed for victory over

Taira no Masakado was a Heian period provincial magnate (''gōzoku'') and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto. Early life Masakado was one of the sons of Taira no Yoshimasa ...

during the

Tengyō no Ran The ("War in the Tengyō era" or " Tengyō Disturbance"), or Jōhei Tengyō no Ran refers to the name of a brief medieval Japanese conflict, in which Taira no Masakado rebelled against the central government. He was defeated after 59 days of fig ...

. In the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

ordered Doi Sanehira to rebuild the shrine in 1180, and made many donations. Despite the worship of many prominent people, and the fact that it is the only ''myōjin taishi'' in Musashi, the Hikawa Shrine was not originally regarded as the ''

'' of the province. The ''

Azuma Kagami is a Japanese historical chronicle. The medieval text chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō (the 6th shōgun) and his return to Kyoto in 12 ...

'' and other contemporary sources give this title to the

Ono Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Ichinomiya neighborhood of the city of Tama in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It is one of the two shrines claiming the title of ''ichinomiya'' of former Musashi Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on th ...

what is now the city of Tama, whereas the Hikawa Shrine is styled the "san-no-miya" of the province instead. On the other hand, the late

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

clearly refers to the Hikawa Shrine as the ''ichinomiya''. During the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, the shrine prospered greatly from its location in Ōmiya-juku, which was a post station on the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...

. Following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

relocated from

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

to Tokyo via the Nakasendō in 1868, stopping at this shrine to worship. in 1870, he made it one of ''

chokusaisha ''Chokusaisha'' () is a shrine where an imperial envoy ''Chokushi'' () performs rituals: ''chokushi sankō no jinja'' (). The following table shows sixteen shrines designated as Chokusaisha. Notes External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chok ...

'' and visited for a second time. The shrine was also given the rank of under the

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...

Modern system of ranked Shinto shrines The was an organizational aspect of the establishment of Japanese State Shinto. This system classified Shinto shrines as either official government shrines or "other" shrines. The official shrines were divided into #Imperial shrines (''kampeisha ...

Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 125. The main shrine structure was renovated in 1882. In 1940, a project financed by the government reconstructed the main shrine structure, the gate tower, and other structures. In 1976, the Large Torii of

Meiji Shrine , is a Shinto shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-momoyama, south of Kyoto. History Af ...

which had been damaged by

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

in 1966 was repaired and relocated to Hikawa Shrine.

Gallery

File:Hikawa-jinja (Saitama), honden.jpg, Honden File:Hikawa-jinja (Saitama), shaden.jpg, Haiden File:Hikawa-jinja (Saitama), buden.jpg, Maidono File:Hikawa-jinja (Saitama), roumon.jpg, Roumon File:Omiya-Hikawa jinja Sando.jpg, Entrance ''torii'' File:氷川神社神楽殿.JPG, Kagura-den

Imperial visits to the shrine

* December 11, 1868: Emperor Meiji's first visit. * 1870: The emperor worships at Hikawa. * 1873: The emperor moves in state to the shrine. * August 31, 1878: The emperor travels from Tokyo to Hikawa. * 1896: The Crown Prince Yoshihito visits the shrine. * 1917: The Crown Prince Hirohito visits the Hikawa. * 1919: The Regent Hirohito (''sesshō'') visits the shrine. * 1920: Empress Sadako (''kogō'') visits Hikawa.

Access

* 10-minute walk from

Kita-Ōmiya Station is a passenger railway station on the Tōbu Urban Park Line in Ōmiya-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Tōbu Railway. Lines Kita-Ōmiya Station is served by the 62.7 km Tōbu Urban Park Line f ...

or Ōmiya-kōen Station on the Tōbu Noda Line * 20-minute walk from Omiya Station (

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

or Tōbu Noda Line)

Notes

External links

*
Official homepage

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 3994492
* ____________. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
{{Authority control Beppyo shrines Kanpei-taisha Shinto shrines in Saitama Prefecture Buildings and structures in Saitama (city) Ichinomiya Musashi Province