The ichinomiya of Musashi Province

What the Japanese sources say

Three shrines are involved with the title of ichinomiya in Musashi: Ono Jinja (小野神社) in Tama City, Hikawa Jinja (氷川神社) in Omiya, and Hikawanyotai Jinja (氷川女體神社) in Midori Ward, Saitama City.

Ono Jinja rests its claim on a line in the Shintōshū (神道集), a text of the Nanboku-chō (Northern and Southern Courts) period, which says “the ichinomiya is Ono Daimyōjin”. The shrine stands close to the provincial capital of Musashi (kokufu, at Fuchū), and the first seat of the eastern hall it was given at Rokushogu, the province’s sōsha — a shrine where the deities of a whole province were worshipped together — has also been taken as support.

Hikawa Jinja is an old shrine that gave the place name Omiya its origin, and its own website says that “as the ichinomiya of Musashi it drew worship from across the Kanto region”. In the modern period it was ranked as a kanpei taisha, one of the state-supported shrine ranks of that era.

Hikawanyotai Jinja has been seen as forming a single whole together with Hikawa Jinja and Nakayama Jinja (中山神社), and it was the centre of rites held around Minuma (見沼). No primary source for its claim to the ichinomiya title could be found.

Written from Japanese sources, each quoted. The Japanese page has the same discussion with the original wording.