Koenji Hikawa Shrine

Shrine · Tokyo

高円寺氷川神社 · Koenji Hikawa Jinja · 気象神社 · Kisho Jinja

Miscellaneous

Researched and translated with AI assistance. Every claim is linked to its source, but errors get through, so check the official site for opening times, fees and closures.About

In short

A Suginami shrine whose grounds hold a shrine to the weather, built inside an army meteorological unit in 1944 and left standing after the war by an oversight.

Koenji Hikawa Shrine in Koenji-minami, Suginami — Photo: Kentin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts

Address: 4-44-19 Koenji-minami, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 166-0003
Access: Koenji on the JR Chuo-Sobu line is a short walk, and Shin-Koenji on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi line is about the same. The shrine stands south of the tracks in Koenji-minami.
Hours: The gate closes at 17:00 and the grounds open early. The office and seal desk keep 9:00 to 16:00 but close irregularly. Prayers must be booked in advance, by telephone or through the site.
Best time: The weather festival on 1 June, held on the anniversary of the start of weather observation in Japan.
Spiritual entities: Yagokoro-Omoikane (八意思兼命) · Susanoo no Mikoto (素盞嗚尊)
Official site: koenji-hikawa.com

About this place

Koenji Hikawa Shrine is a neighbourhood shrine a few minutes south of Koenji station, enshrining Susanoo, and it would not be widely known except for what stands in its grounds. The Kisho Jinja, the weather shrine, was built in 1944 inside the compound of the Imperial Japanese Army's meteorological unit. It was supposed to be removed after the war and was not. People come to ask for fine weather on a particular day and hang wooden tablets shaped like clogs.

Origin and history

The main shrine is the older and the plainer story. It is said to have been founded when Minamoto no Yoritomo campaigned in the north, at what was then Suginami in Musashi province, and it enshrines Susanoo, whom the shrine describes as born when Izanagi rinsed his nose during his purification, the deity who killed the eight-headed serpent and presented the Kusanagi sword, and who is regarded as a deity of agriculture. It was recognised as a village shrine in 1874 and became a religious corporation after the Pacific War. The halls were rebuilt in 1916, burned in the Tokyo air raid of 1945, replaced with a temporary hall in 1947, and rebuilt in their present form in 1971.

The weather shrine has a much shorter and much stranger history. In April 1944 it was built inside the grounds of the army meteorological unit in the Mabashi district of Suginami, as somewhere the observers could put their minds. It enshrines Yagokoro-Omoikane.

Under the Shinto Directive issued by the occupation after the war it should have been taken down with the rest of the army's shrines. The survey missed it, and it was still standing. A former chief priest of this shrine, Yamamoto Minoru, decided to take it in, and it was moved here. It was rebuilt in 2003.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
A shrine the occupation survey overlooked
Built in 1944 inside an army meteorological unit, the Kisho Jinja should have been removed under the Shinto Directive. It was missed, and a priest here took it in.
documented history
What people do hereMiscellaneous
Tablets shaped like clogs
Instead of the usual wooden plaque, the weather shrine takes votive tablets cut in the shape of a geta, in red or yellow.
local custom
Origin
A deity who thinks from every side
The weather shrine enshrines Yagokoro-Omoikane, whose name the shrine reads as gathering many kinds of wisdom at once, which is a fair description of forecasting.
documented history
What people do here
A festival on the day observation began
The weather festival falls on 1 June, chosen for the anniversary of the founding of the Tokyo Meteorological Observatory in 1875.
documented history

This page carries the miscellaneous tag, the first on this site, and the shrine has earned it.

This site tags a place with the things its own institution says it is for. Koenji Hikawa states two things about itself. Susanoo, it says, is regarded as a deity of agriculture. And the Kisho Jinja in its grounds takes prayers for fine weather. Neither fits an ordinary category. The shrine also offers the full range of prayers and amulets, from winning to money to passing an examination, but that is the service menu every shrine keeps, and this site does not tag from menus.

Rather than bend weather into career, or the wisdom of Omoikane into examinations, the site files the page honestly under miscellaneous, the category for a stated devotion too specific for any other.

What the tag stands for here is weather. People come before an outdoor wedding, a sports day, a festival, a shoot, and ask for the day to be clear. The shrine takes prayers for fine weather among its weather rites, and instead of the usual wooden plaque the tablets here are cut in the shape of a geta, the clog you throw to see whether tomorrow will be fine. They come in red and yellow.

The deity fits the job. Yagokoro-Omoikane is a deity of wisdom, and the shrine reads the name carefully: the first part means considering a thing from many positions at once, the second means holding several offices together, so the deity is one who can bring many kinds of knowledge to bear on a single question. Whoever chose him for a meteorological unit in 1944 had thought about it.

The festival date is chosen the same way. The weather festival falls on 1 June, which is Meteorological Memorial Day in Japan, the anniversary of the founding of the Tokyo Meteorological Observatory and the start of regular observation in 1875.

Claims and evidence levels 8

The shrine relates that it was founded at the time of Minamoto no Yoritomo's northern campaign, in what was then Suginami in Musashi province. folk tradition
The shrine enshrines Susanoo, whom it describes as born when Izanagi rinsed his nose during his purification, and as regarded as a deity of agriculture. documented history
The shrine was recognised as a village shrine in 1874; its halls were rebuilt in 1916, burned in the Tokyo air raid of 1945, replaced by a temporary hall in 1947, and rebuilt in their present form in 1971. documented history
The Kisho Jinja was built in April 1944 inside the compound of the Imperial Japanese Army meteorological unit in the Mabashi district of Suginami, as a support for the observers stationed there, and enshrines Yagokoro-Omoikane. documented history
The shrine states that the Kisho Jinja was due to be removed under the postwar Shinto Directive but survived because it was left out of the survey; a former chief priest of Koenji Hikawa, Yamamoto Minoru, decided to take it in, and it was rebuilt in 2003. documented history
The Kisho Jinja performs prayers for fine weather among its weather rites, and takes votive tablets cut in the shape of a geta, in red and yellow. documented history
The shrine reads the name Yagokoro-Omoikane as one who considers from many positions and holds several offices at once, and so as a deity able to bring many kinds of wisdom together. documented history
The weather festival is held on 1 June each year, chosen to fall on Meteorological Memorial Day, which marks the founding of the Tokyo Meteorological Observatory and the start of weather observation in 1875. documented history

Visiting tips

The general form is in the visiting guide below. Specific to Koenji Hikawa:

The gate closes at 17:00. The office and the seal desk keep roughly 9:00 to 16:00 but close irregularly, so a seal or an amulet is not guaranteed on any given day.

Prayers must be booked in advance. The shrine takes bookings by telephone and through a form on its site, and does not simply accept walk-ins.

The car park in the grounds is for people visiting the shrine and is closed during its own events.

The weather shrine is a small subsidiary structure in the grounds, not a separate site, and the main shrine is the one at the top of the approach.

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