Oyachi Jinja

Quick facts

Address

2-2-1 Oyachi-nishi, Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido

Spiritual entities

Ōkuninushi (大国主命)

About this place

Oyachi Jinja stands in Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo. Its deities are Okunitama, Onamuchi and Sukunahikona. In 1884 a founding representatives’ council was formed; revering the deity as the everlasting guardian of the people of Oyachi and praying that the country be at peace and the people blessed, the members conferred together and submitted a petition to the prefectural office in 1897, becoming an unranked shrine. A notice of completed founding was submitted in 1900. In 1946 it became the religious corporation Oyachi Jinja, with Mitsuhashi Kichishirō as its first chief priest. A hall was built in 1974, and in August of that year the transfer rite and the offering rite were performed, as they stand today. The annual festival is 22 September, with the eve festival on 21 September. No benefit that may be prayed for is stated.

Origin and history

In 1884 a founding representatives’ council was formed; revering the deity as the everlasting guardian of the people of Oyachi and praying that the country be at peace and the people blessed, the members conferred together and submitted a petition to the prefectural office in 1897, becoming an unranked shrine.

A notice of completed founding was submitted in 1900.

In 1946 it became the religious corporation Oyachi Jinja, with Mitsuhashi Kichishirō as its first chief priest. A hall was built in 1974, and in August of that year the transfer rite and the offering rite were performed.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  A founding representatives’ council

  In 1884 a founding representatives’ council was formed, and after conferring together the members submitted a petition to the prefectural office in 1897.

  documented history

• Origin

  Praying the country be at peace

  The deity was revered as the everlasting guardian of the people of Oyachi, with prayer that the country be at peace and the people blessed.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Incorporation and a first priest

  In 1946 it became the religious corporation Oyachi Jinja, with Mitsuhashi Kichishirō as its first chief priest.

  documented history

This shrine begins with a committee. In 1884 a founding representatives’ council was formed — not a god, not a building, but a body of people constituted to bring a shrine into being. The petition reached the prefectural office in 1897 and the notice of completion in 1900, sixteen years after the council first met.

Sapporo’s shrines begin variously with a god carried here, a god chosen here, an Ise confraternity, a wooden marker post, one man’s morning and evening worship. What stands at the start of this one is a council. Okadama Jinja in the same city likewise grew out of an association, but that was a body for going to worship; this was a body for founding.

What was prayed for is recorded too: revering the deity as the everlasting guardian of the people of Oyachi, and praying that the country be at peace and the people blessed. The district’s protection and a prayer for the country stand in one sentence.

Its three deities are those of Hokkaido Jingu’s colonisation trio — Okunitama, Onamuchi and Sukunahikona. But this shrine does not claim to have received a divided spirit from it. Shinkawa Kotai Jinja in the same city likewise holds those three without claiming descent: chosen rather than inherited.

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Sources

1. 大谷地神社 — 北海道神社庁札幌支部 (accessed 2026-08-16)