Sapporo Miyoshi Jinja
Miyoshi Jinja
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In short
Begins in 1878 when Kimura Tōkichi, a man from Akita, enshrined a divided spirit of his home province’s Miyoshi Shrine on the east bank of the Toyohira river.
Quick facts
- Address
- 17-15 Minami 1-jo Nishi 8-chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido
- Spiritual entities
- Ōkuninushi (大国主命)
About this place
Sapporo Miyoshi Jinja stands in Chuo-ku, Sapporo. Its deities are Onamuchi, Sukunahikona, Fujiwara Miyoshi, Kotohira and Tenmangu. In the fifth month of 1878 Kimura Tōkichi, a man of Akita prefecture, enshrined a divided spirit of the Miyoshi Shrine on Mount Taihei in Akita at the east end of the Toyohira river, and in the fourth month of 1879 the shrine moved to its present site. Its festival was originally held on the eighth of every month and on 8 May, but the third chief priest, Satō Katsura, moved the annual festival to 15 May in 1924. A hall was built in 1977, the children’s portable shrine was revived in 1979, and in 1985 the portable-shrine procession was revived after forty-six years. The annual festival is 15 May, with the eve festival on 14 May. No benefit that may be prayed for is stated.
Origin and history
In the fifth month of 1878 Kimura Tōkichi, a man of Akita prefecture, enshrined a divided spirit of the Miyoshi Shrine on Mount Taihei in Akita at the east end of the Toyohira river. In the fourth month of 1879 the shrine moved to its present site.
Its festival was originally held on the eighth of every month and on 8 May, but the third chief priest, Satō Katsura, moved the annual festival to 15 May in 1924.
A hall was built in 1977, the children’s portable shrine was revived in 1979, and in 1985 the portable-shrine procession was revived after forty-six years.
What it is locally associated with
A divided spirit carried by one man
In the fifth month of 1878 Kimura Tōkichi of Akita enshrined a divided spirit of the Miyoshi Shrine on Mount Taihei at the east end of the Toyohira river.
documented historyMoved to its present site the next year
In the fourth month of 1879 the shrine moved to its present site.
documented historyA procession revived after 46 years
The children’s portable shrine was revived in 1979, and in 1985 the portable-shrine procession was revived after forty-six years.
documented history
This shrine was founded by one individual whose name survives. Kimura Tōkichi, of Akita prefecture — the province and the full name are both recorded — enshrined a divided spirit of the Miyoshi Shrine on Mount Taihei at the east end of the Toyohira river.
Sapporo’s foundings usually come with a count. Hokkaido Jingu’s deities were carried as a state undertaking; Kotoni Jinja was raised by the first 240 farmer-soldier households; Nishino Jinja by five settler households. Two hundred and forty, five, and here one. What he brought was not the deity itself but a divided spirit — a portion granted by the shrine at home.
Five names stand in the list of deities: Onamuchi, Sukunahikona, Fujiwara Miyoshi, Kotohira and Tenmangu. Names of gods and names of shrines side by side.
The festival date has been moved once. It fell on the eighth of every month and on 8 May until the third chief priest, Satō Katsura, changed it to 15 May in 1924. The festival was also interrupted: the portable-shrine procession returned in 1985 after forty-six years. Elsewhere on this list — Nanzoin and Hikosan Jingu in Fukuoka — shrines record their own discontinuity; what is recorded here is a break in the observance rather than in the faith.
Claims and evidence levels 2
- Kimura Tōkichi of Akita enshrined a divided spirit of his home province’s Miyoshi Shrine on the Toyohira riverbank in 1878. documented history
- The annual festival was moved to 15 May in 1924, and the portable-shrine procession was revived in 1985 after forty-six years. documented history
Related guides
- How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
- What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
- Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
- Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.
Sources
- 三吉神社 — 北海道神社庁札幌支部 (accessed 2026-08-16)
Last updated:
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