Hikawa Shrine (Musashi Ichinomiya) [Omiya Ward, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture]

Date of visit: 2007/07/01
Address: 1-407 Takahana-cho, Omiya-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama 330-0803
Deities: Susanoo-no-Mikoto, Inadahime-no-Mikoto, Oonamuchi-no-Mikoto

According to shrine tradition, it was founded in the 3rd year of the 5th Emperor Kosho.
During the reign of the 13th Emperor Seimu, E-tamo-hi-no-Mikoto of the Izumo clan became the governor of Musashi Province, revered this shrine, and it is said that it came to be called Hikawa Shrine after the Hii River in Izumo Province.
It is the central shrine of the Hikawa faith and Hikawa shrines, which spread throughout the Arakawa River basin in Saitama and Tokyo, particularly in the former Adachi District of Musashi Province.

A Myojin Taisha shrine listed in the Engishiki Jinmyocho.
From the medieval period onwards, this Hikawa Shrine replaced Ono Shrine (disputed shrines: Ono Shrine in Tama City, Ono Shrine in Fuchu City) as the Ichinomiya (first-rank shrine) of Musashi Province.
When Tokyo became the capital during the Meiji Restoration, it was designated as the guardian shrine of Musashi Province and an Imperial-appointed shrine; Emperor Meiji visited in the first year of Meiji, and it was ranked as a Kanpei Taisha (Imperial Shrine of the first rank) in the 4th year of Meiji (1871).

Takahana, where the shrine is located, is on the Omiya Plateau that juts out into the Minuma (a vast marsh that existed until the mid-Edo period) and has been a spring water source since ancient times.
The sacred pond that spreads to the south of the shrine is said to have once been part of the water source for Minuma.

In the early modern period, it was divided into three shrines: Nantaisha, Nyotaisha, and Hiojisha, but in the 15th year of Meiji (1882), Hiojisha and Nyotaisha were abolished, and the three deities were enshrined in Nantaisha; in the 15th year of Showa (1940), the main hall, gate, and other structures were rebuilt to their current form.

One of the shrines worshipped from afar during the Shihohai (worship of the four directions) at the Imperial Court.
Shihohai is a ritual performed by the Emperor in the Imperial Court garden early on New Year's morning to worship the deities of the heavens and the four directions.
Currently, it includes worship of Ise Jingu (Kotai Jingu and Toyouke Daijingu), the deities of heaven and earth, the mausoleums of Emperor Jimmu and the three preceding emperors, as well as the Ichinomiya of Musashi Province (Hikawa Shrine), the Ichinomiya of Yamashiro Province (Kamowakeikazuchi Shrine and Kamomioya Shrine), Iwashimizu Hachimangu, Atsuta Jingu, the Ichinomiya of Hitachi Province (Kashima Jingu), and the Ichinomiya of Shimosa Province (Katori Jingu).

Auxiliary shrines