Shinkawa Kotai Jinja
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In short
A shrine whose history records that seven promoters and thirty-seven parishioners served at its enshrinement rite in 1908.
Quick facts
- Address
- 3-13-3-12 Shinkawa 3-jo, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido
- Spiritual entities
- Amaterasu Ōmikami (天照大御神) · Hachiman (八幡神) · Ōkuninushi (大国主命)
About this place
Shinkawa Kotai Jinja stands in Kita-ku, Sapporo. Its deities are Amaterasu, Toyoukehime, Homdawake, Onamuchi and Sukunahikona. A ground-breaking rite was held in September 1904. On 20 September 1908 the promoters — Obe Teijirō, Kihara Tsunezō and five others, seven in all — together with thirty-seven parishioners served at the enshrinement rite. In September 1940, the building having been damaged, it was rebuilt as a project marking the 2,600th year of the imperial era. On 20 September 1956 Kondō Shigeru, head of the building committee, and four others acted as promoters, and forty-seven parish representatives served at the rite transferring the main hall. The annual festival is 22 September, with the eve festival on 21 September and a following rite on 23 September. No benefit that may be prayed for is stated.
Origin and history
A ground-breaking rite was held in September 1904.
On 20 September 1908 the promoters — Obe Teijirō, Kihara Tsunezō and five others, seven in all — together with thirty-seven parishioners served at the enshrinement rite.
In September 1940, the building having been damaged, it was rebuilt as a project marking the 2,600th year of the imperial era. On 20 September 1956 Kondō Shigeru, head of the building committee, and four others acted as promoters, and forty-seven parish representatives served at the rite transferring the main hall.
What it is locally associated with
Seven promoters and thirty-seven parishioners
On 20 September 1908 the promoters Obe Teijirō, Kihara Tsunezō and five others, with thirty-seven parishioners, served at the enshrinement rite.
documented historyA ground-breaking rite in 1904
A ground-breaking rite was held in September 1904.
documented historyRebuilt for the 2,600th imperial year
In September 1940, the building having been damaged, it was rebuilt as a project marking the 2,600th year of the imperial era.
documented history
What this shrine’s history counts is not the people who arrived but the people who served at the rite. Seven promoters and thirty-seven parishioners served at the enshrinement; at the transfer of the main hall in 1956, five promoters and forty-seven parish representatives.
Sapporo’s shrines record numbers often — Kotoni Jinja’s 240 households, Nishino Jinja’s five, Teine Jinja’s 250, Konan Jinja’s 220 households of 1,056 people, Soma Jinja’s sixty-five households of 203. But all of those count people who moved here. This is the only one that keeps the number of people who stood at the ceremony. Not a record of migration, but of a rite.
Several names survive as well: Obe Teijirō, Kihara Tsunezō, and Kondō Shigeru, head of the building committee in 1956. Sapporo shrines on this list often keep one name — Kimura Tōkichi at Miyoshi Jinja, Ueshima Tadashi at Suwa Jinja — but this one lists several.
The reason for rebuilding was the moment it fell in. In September 1940, the building having been damaged, it was rebuilt as a project marking the 2,600th year of the imperial era. The damage and the anniversary sit in a single sentence.
Claims and evidence levels 2
- Seven promoters and thirty-seven parishioners served at the enshrinement rite on 20 September 1908. documented history
- The shrine was rebuilt in September 1940 as a project marking the 2,600th year of the imperial era. 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
- 新川皇大神社 — 北海道神社庁札幌支部 (accessed 2026-08-16)
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