Chichibu Province Ichinomiya
Chichibu Jinja
秩父神社
Chichibu Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Chichibu Province, in present-day Saitama. It has a car park; the sources we checked give neither its size nor a fee. Opening hours end at 16:30 (shrine office; 16:00 from January 1 to 6). Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 2 routes from a station (on foot), one of them a walk of 3 min; the station names are listed below. Its principal annual festival (reisai) falls on December 3 every year. We found 3 entries for the shrine in Japan’s national database of designated cultural properties. The nearest other ichinomiya is Ichinomiya Nukisaki Jinja, 35 km to the north-west in a straight line.
Getting there
埼玉県秩父市番場町1-1
The address is given in Japanese on purpose. Show it to a taxi driver, or copy it into a car navigation system — an English transliteration will not be recognised.
For a car navigation system
- Phone
- Japanese car navigation searches by phone number. This is the fastest way to enter a destination.
- Coordinates
- Derived from the address down to the street number, via Japan's national mapping agency. Not a survey of the hall itself
- Address
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By train and bus
- From 秩父駅秩父鉄道
- On foot, 3 min.
- From 西武秩父駅西武秩父線
- On foot, 15 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
秩父鉄道秩父駅より徒歩3分 西武秩父線西武秩父駅より徒歩15分
Taken from the shrine's own website (秩父神社 公式サイト アクセス, checked 2026-10-08). Station and stop names stay in Japanese so you can match them to signs. Fares and timetables are not given — they change.
Parking
It has a car park; the sources we checked give neither its size nor a fee.
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. From this car park to the hall is about 230 m in a straight line (the walk is longer).
Shrine office hours
Opening hours end at 16:30 (shrine office; 16:00 from January 1 to 6).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
9:00-16:30（随時受付）。正月は1/1-3 8:30-16:00（30分間隔）、1/4-6 9:00-16:00
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 3 ichinomiya in Saitama in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Founding
- The shrine says it began when Chichibuhiko no Mikoto, the first governor of Chichibu Province in Emperor Sujin's reign, worshipped his ancestral deity.
- Name
- From medieval times it merged with the Myōken faith of the Chichibu Taira and flourished as Chichibu Myōken-gū; in the Meiji era it returned to the name Chichibu Jinja.
- Buildings
- The existing halls were donated by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1592.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (ご祭神・由緒｜秩父神社, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Yagokoromoikane-no-Mikoto 八意思兼命
- Chichibuhiko-no-Mikoto 知知夫彦命
- Amenominakanushi-no-Kami 天之御中主神 2 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Chichibunomiyayasuhitoshinno 秩父宮雍仁親王
Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Goshuin (shrine seal)
- Available
- Yes
- Hours
- 9:00-16:30
- Offering
- ¥500
Nationally designated cultural properties
- 秩父祭の屋台行事と神楽
- Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (manners and customs)
- 秩父祭屋台
- Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property (objects used in worship)
- 秩父神社神楽
- Intangible Folk Cultural Property selected for recording (folk performing arts)
Source: the national register. All of them together →
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
12月3日 例祭（御本殿の儀）
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 秩父夜祭
- 12月2日・3日
- 川瀬祭
- 7月19日・20日
- 御田植祭
- 4月4日
- 秩父宮祭
- 5月3日
- 蚕糸祭 他
- 12月4日～6日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Ichinomiya Nukisaki Jinja, about 35 km to the north-west in a straight line, the ichinomiya of Kozuke Province. After that come Hikawa Jinja (50 km east) and Ono Jinja (50 km south-east).
Straight-line distances between the shrines, not road distances. Across mountains or water, the drive is much longer.
Why this shrine is called an ichinomiya
Listed by the pilgrimage association
It appears on the map published by the Ichinomiya Pilgrimage Association. We have not yet checked other primary sources.
- 全国一の宮巡拝会『全国一の宮神社所在地』（平成30年5月・改訂版 第4版） (checked 2026-09-09)
More on how the shrines of this province relate to one another is on the Chichibu Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Chichibu Province (Shin-Ichinomiya)
- Prefecture
- Saitama
- Engishiki (927)
- Shōsha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kensha
Sources
- https://www.chichibu-jinja.or.jp/access/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://www.chichibu-jinja.or.jp/goshuin/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://www.chichibu-jinja.or.jp/saijin/ (checked 2026-09-10)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.