Kii Province Ichinomiya
Itakiso Jinja
伊太祁曽神社
Itakiso Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Kii Province, in present-day Wakayama. It has a car park (about 35 spaces); the sources we checked do not give a fee. Opening hours end at 16:00 (prayer-rite desk). Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 1 route from a station (on foot), one of them a walk of 5 min; the station names are listed below. Its principal annual festival (reisai) falls on October 15 every year. The nearest other ichinomiya is Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu, 5.2 km to the north-west in a straight line.
Getting there
和歌山県和歌山市伊太祈曽 558
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 伊太祈曽駅和歌山電鐵貴志川線
- On foot, 5 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
和歌山駅より和歌山電鐵貴志川線（９番線ホーム）にご乗車になり、伊太祈曽駅で下車。伊太祈曽駅より徒歩５分。
Taken from the shrine's own website (交通案内 << 伊太祁曽神社, 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 35 spaces); the sources we checked do not give a fee.
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. From this car park to the hall is about 60 m in a straight line (the walk is longer). The location is taken from OpenStreetMap and has not been checked on the ground.
境内 乗用車約30台・大型観光バス約5台／一の鳥居東側 乗用車約5台。料金は確認できず
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 16:00 (prayer-rite desk).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
祈祷受付 9:00-16:00過ぎ（公式）※和歌山県観光連盟は 9:00-17:00 と記載しており食い違いがある。授与所そのものの時間は公式に記載なし
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 3 ichinomiya in Wakayama in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- History
- The earliest dated record of the shrine is in the Shoku Nihongi, for 702.
- Moved
- The shrine was apparently first at the site of Hinokuma Jingu, moving to Inomori in Sando around the 16th year of Emperor Suinin.
- Moved
- According to the Kan'ei-ki, the shrine settled at its present site in 713.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (御由緒, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Isotakeru-no-Mikoto 五十猛命 3 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Oyatsuhime-no-Mikoto 大屋津比売命 also enshrined
- Tsumatsuhime-no-Mikoto 都麻津比売命 also enshrined
Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Goshuin (shrine seal)
- Available
- Yes
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
10月15日 例祭
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 神幸祭
- 10月15日の次の日曜日
- 卯杖祭
- 1月14日・15日
- 木祭り
- 4月第1日曜日
- 茅輪祭
- 7月30日・31日
- 亥の森祭
- 旧暦十月初亥日
old-calendar date
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu, about 5.2 km to the north-west in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Nifutsuhime Jinja (26 km east) and Otori Jinja (42 km north-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
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 it is “a shrine entered in the Engishiki Jinmyōchō — a shikinaisha — ranked myōjin taisha and included in the tsukinami, niiname and ainame offerings”, and that it “has received the reverence of court and country as the ichinomiya of Kii (Ki) Province”. It relates that the shrine was originally enshrined on the grounds of Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu and was later moved to its present site.
- https://itakiso-jinja.net/yuisho.php (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 Kii Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Kii Province (Nankaidō)
- Prefecture
- Wakayama
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kanpei Chūsha
Sources
- https://itakiso-jinja.net/yuisho.php (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://itakiso-jinja.net/access.php (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://itakiso-jinja.net/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://itakiso-jinja.net/kigan.php (checked 2026-09-24)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.