Musashi Province Ichinomiya
Hikawa Jinja
氷川神社
Hikawa Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Musashi Province, in present-day Saitama. It has a car park (about 180 spaces), the main car park charges after 40 minutes. Opening hours end at 16:30 (charm counter). Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 2 routes from a station (on foot), one of them a walk of about 15 min; the station names are listed below. Its principal annual festival (reisai) falls on August 1 every year. The nearest other ichinomiya is Hikawanyotai Jinja, 6.7 km to the south-east in a straight line.
Getting there
埼玉県さいたま市大宮区高鼻町1-407
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 大宮駅JR
- On foot, about 15 min.
- From 北大宮駅東武アーバンパークライン（東武野田線）
- On foot, about 10 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
電車でお越しの場合 JR大宮駅 | 東口から徒歩で約15分 東武アーバンパークライン（東武野田線） 北大宮駅 | 西駐車場まで徒歩約１０分
Taken from the shrine's own website (アクセス | 武蔵一宮 氷川神社, 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 (about 180 spaces), the main car park charges after 40 minutes.
The fee in the source’s own words: 「24時間使用可（40分以上駐車から有料になります）」 (source, checked 2026-10-15).
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. The location is taken from OpenStreetMap and has not been checked on the ground.
3か所。第一 約40台（最大100台・40分以上で有料・24時間）／第二 約20台（8:00-17:00・11月下旬〜1月中旬は使用不可）／西 約120台（7:00-18:00・団体バス用）。大湯祭十日市（12月10日）と1/1〜1/3は全駐車場閉鎖
The note above is in Japanese; it usually records dates when the car park is closed, and the fee.
Shrine office hours
Opening hours end at 16:30 (charm counter).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
8:30-16:30（神札授与）／祈祷受付 8:45-15:45（祈祷は 9:00-16:00、30分ごと）／楼門 1〜2月・11〜12月 6:00-17:00、3〜4月・9〜10月 5:30-17:30、5〜8月 5:00-18:00
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
- According to the shrine's tradition, it was founded in the third year of Emperor Kosho's reign.
- History
- In 1868, after moving the capital to Tokyo, Emperor Meiji designated the shrine the guardian shrine of Musashi Province for imperial rites.
- History
- The place name Omiya is said to come from praising the shrine as a 'great shrine'.
- History
- In 1628, the Kanto magistrate Ina Tadaharu moved the highway to the west side of the plateau and laid out the new post town of Omiya.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (武蔵一宮 氷川神社 由緒・歴史, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Susano-no-Mikoto 須佐之男命 4 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Inadahime-no-Mikoto 稲田姫命
- Onamuchi-no-Mikoto 大己貴命 17 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
The shrine's website says its three deities are enshrined to pray for the good ordering of the land and the well-being of the people.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
8月1日 例祭
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 神幸祭
- 8月2日
- 大湯祭
- 11月30日より12月11日まで12日間
- 的神事
- 2月7日
- 粽神事
- 6月5日
- 鎮花祭
- 4月5～7日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Hikawanyotai Jinja, about 6.7 km to the south-east in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Ono Jinja (34 km south-west) and Chichibu Jinja (50 km west).
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
Claimed by the shrine
The shrine itself uses the title, but does not name the historical document it rests on.
Listed on the map published by the Ichinomiya Pilgrimage Association.
The shrine’s own website says that “as the ichinomiya of Musashi it drew worship from across the Kanto region”. It is an old shrine that gave the place name Omiya its origin.
- https://musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- 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 Musashi Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Musashi Province (Tōkaidō)
- Prefecture
- Saitama
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kanpei Taisha
Sources
- https://musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://www.musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp/access/index.html (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://visitsaitamacity.jp/spots/19 (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp/about/index.html (checked 2026-09-10)
- https://www.musashiichinomiya-hikawa.or.jp/news/1/ (checked 2026-10-01)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.