Soma Jinja

Shrine · Sapporo

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In short

Begins in 1871 when settlers, chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate, performed rites here as a distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja; a divided spirit from Soma in Fukushima came later and gave the shrine its name.

The hall of Soma Jinja at Hiragishi, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo. — Ozizo / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Quick facts

Address: 2-18-1-1 Hiragishi 2-jo, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido
Spiritual entities: Amenominakanushi (天之御中主神)

About this place

Soma Jinja stands in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo. Its deity is Ame-no-Minakanushi. In the third month of 1871, sixty-five households numbering 203 people, chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate, received a grant of the present site at Hiragishi Tenjinyama as land intended for a shrine and performed rites there as a distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja. In January 1902 devotees of Soma Ōta Jinja, tutelary shrine of Soma district in Fukushima, brought a divided spirit and enshrined it in a temporary hall at Toyohira-cho 5 in Sapporo district. Permission to found the shrine was granted on 27 October 1908, and the rite for the completion of the main hall was held on 27 November 1909. It moved to its present site in 1916, the main hall was rebuilt in 1928, and centenary works on the hall were completed on 25 August 2007. The annual festival is 7 September, with the eve festival on 6 September. No benefit that may be prayed for is stated.

Origin and history

In the third month of 1871, sixty-five households numbering 203 people, chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate, received a grant of the present site at Hiragishi Tenjinyama as land intended for a shrine and performed rites there as a distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja.

In January 1902 devotees of Soma Ōta Jinja, tutelary shrine of Soma district in Fukushima, brought a divided spirit and enshrined it in a temporary hall. Permission to found the shrine was granted on 27 October 1908, and the rite for the completion of the main hall was held on 27 November 1909.

It moved to its present site in 1916, the main hall was rebuilt in 1928, and centenary works on the hall were completed on 25 August 2007.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
A distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja
In the third month of 1871 settlers received a grant of Hiragishi Tenjinyama as land intended for a shrine and performed rites there as a distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja.
documented history
Origin
A divided spirit from Soma Ōta Jinja
In January 1902 devotees of Soma Ōta Jinja, tutelary shrine of Soma district in Fukushima, brought a divided spirit and enshrined it in a temporary hall.
documented history
What people do here
Sixty-five households, 203 people
The settlers were sixty-five households numbering 203 people, chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate.
documented history

This shrine, too, begins as a place for worshipping another shrine from a distance. In the third month of 1871 sixty-five households of 203 people, chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate, received a grant of Hiragishi Tenjinyama as land intended for a shrine and performed rites there facing Sapporo Jinja — today’s Hokkaido Jingu.

This is the third such site on this list. Munakata Taisha’s Okitsu-gu Yohaisho in Fukuoka faces an island a rule forbids anyone to enter; Teine Jinja, also in Sapporo, was raised because winter and the farming season made the journey impossible. This one is the earliest of the three — 1871, the same year Sapporo Jinja took its name and moved to Maruyama, and twenty-five years before Teine’s petition. Sapporo held two places built to worship one shrine from afar.

Both the people and the god changed partway. It was begun by former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate. Thirty-one years later, in 1902, devotees of Soma Ōta Jinja in Soma district, Fukushima, brought a divided spirit, and the shrine’s present name comes from them. What survives in the name is not the home province of those who first held the land, but that of those who came after.

The settlers are counted twice over: sixty-five households, 203 people. Kotoni Jinja’s 240 households, Nishino Jinja’s five and Teine Jinja’s 250 stand beside it, but this is the only one that also records how many people that was.

Claims and evidence levels 2

The site began in 1871 as a distant-worship site facing Sapporo Jinja, established by settlers who were chiefly former retainers of Mizusawa in Iwate. documented history
A divided spirit of Soma Ōta Jinja in Fukushima was brought in 1902, and the shrine was permitted to be founded in 1908. documented history

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