Musashi Ichinomiya Hikawa Shrine

photo by Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by ja:user:Stanislaus · Public domain

The longest shrine approach in Japan: about 2 km, over 30 species of tree.

Shinto shrine in Ōmiya that gives the city its name (大宮, ‘great sacred residence’): tradition holds that it was founded about 2,000 years ago, and it became ichinomiya (the highest-ranking shrine) of Musashi Province in the Nara period, about 1,200 years later. Its approach (sandō), lined with zelkovas, camphor trees and cherry trees, over 30 species and about 670 trees, runs about 2 km from the first torii on the old Nakasendō to the second: it is the longest in Japan. The second torii, 13 m tall and moved here from Meiji Shrine, is the largest surviving wooden torii in the Kantō. The shrine grounds cover about 30,000 tsubo (about 99,000 m²). The Reitaisai (the foremost example, 1–2 August) is one of only 16 rites in the whole of Japan attended by an imperial envoy (勅使); the Ōyusai (大湯祭, 10 December) is the shrine's best-known and most distinctive rite.

Head shrine of the roughly 280 Hikawa shrines scattered across the Kantō. It is separate from, and older than, the Hikawa shrines of Kawagoe (川越氷川神社) and Senba (仙波氷川神社), both about 20 km away: they are three different places, not variants of the same name.

ℹ️ The grounds are always open and entry is free. Offices and amulet shops keep their own hours, to be checked on the official site.

🚉 Kita-omiya · 9 min walk

Sources: musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp · visitsaitamacity.jp

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