Shinano Jinja

Quick facts

Address

4-3-3-3 Atsubetsu-chuo, Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido

About this place

Shinano Jinja stands in Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo. Its deities are Takeminakatatomi, Yasakatome and Kamitsukeno-no-kimi Tamichi. In 1881 Kasai Yoshizō came from Kami-Suwa in Nagano with thirty settler households and laboured at clearing land at Atsubetsu-chuo, in the western part and down the river. In 1882 a divided spirit was received from Suwa Taisha and enshrined, at first in a small shrine, as something for the heart to rest on; in 1897 Kasai and the shrine’s stewards founded an imposing hall. In 1944 the deity of Asahimachi Jinja was merged in, and the present hall was completed in 1978. In May 1988 a divided spirit of Yasakatome was received. The annual festival is 15 September, with the eve festival on 14 September. No benefit that may be prayed for is stated.

Origin and history

In 1881 Kasai Yoshizō came from Kami-Suwa in Nagano with thirty settler households and laboured at clearing land at Atsubetsu-chuo, in the western part and down the river.

In 1882 a divided spirit was received from Suwa Taisha and enshrined, at first in a small shrine, as something for the heart to rest on; in 1897 Kasai and the shrine’s stewards founded an imposing hall.

In 1944 the deity of Asahimachi Jinja was merged in, and the present hall was completed in 1978. In May 1988 a divided spirit of Yasakatome was received.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  Thirty households from Kami-Suwa

  In 1881 Kasai Yoshizō came from Kami-Suwa in Nagano with thirty settler households and laboured at clearing the land.

  documented history

• Origin

  A divided spirit from Suwa Taisha

  In 1882 a divided spirit was received from Suwa Taisha and enshrined in a small shrine as something for the heart to rest on.

  documented history

• What people do here

  From small shrine to hall

  In 1897 Kasai and the stewards founded an imposing hall, and the present hall was completed in 1978.

  documented history

Sapporo holds two shrines founded by people from Shinano. This one began in 1881 when Kasai Yoshizō came from Kami-Suwa in Nagano with thirty settler households, and received a divided spirit from Suwa Taisha the following year. The other, Sapporo Suwa Jinja, was settled in 1878 by Ueshima Tadashi and some thirty others, and it too invited a divided spirit from Shinano’s first shrine in 1882. Three years apart in arriving, the same year in sending for a god. Neither page mentions the other.

The reason given for building is phrased alike as well. Here it is “as something for the heart to rest on”; at Hoshioki Jinja it is “as something in which to share hardship and ease alike”. Two shrines founded by people from different provinces describe what a shrine was needed for in nearly the same words.

Of the three deities here, Kamitsukeno-no-kimi Tamichi also appears at Toyohira Jinja in the same city. There he is the guardian deity of Tōhoku, and the parent shrine is named as Saruka Jinja at Sarukayama in Aomori. He came here with the merger of Asahimachi Jinja in 1944 — a god carried from Aomori to Sapporo and now standing on two of this city’s pages.

The buildings came in stages: a small shrine in 1882, an imposing hall in 1897, the present hall in 1978 — ninety-six years from the first small shrine.

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Sources

1. 信濃神社 — 北海道神社庁札幌支部 (accessed 2026-08-16)