Kii Province Ichinomiya
Nifutsuhime Jinja
丹生都比売神社
Nifutsuhime Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Kii Province, in present-day Wakayama. It has a car park (about 60 spaces), free. Opening hours end at 16:30 (goshuin and charms). Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 2 routes from a station (by bus, on foot); the station names are listed below. Its principal annual festival (reisai) falls on October 16 every year. We found 12 entries for the shrine in Japan’s national database of designated cultural properties, 1 of them National Treasure. The nearest other ichinomiya is Itakiso Jinja, 26 km to the west in a straight line.
Getting there
和歌山県伊都郡かつらぎ町上天野 230
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.
Before you drive here
There is a notice about reaching this shrine by car — it may concern road closures at New Year, vehicle size limits, which way you can turn into the car park, or satellite navigation giving the wrong place. The Japanese text reads:
公式が注意を出している。カーナビが県道109号（三谷方面）へ誘導することがあるが、道幅が狭くバスは通行できない。国道480号を利用すること
For a car navigation system
- Phone
- Japanese car navigation searches by phone number. This is the fastest way to enter a destination.
- Coordinates
- From OpenStreetMap, as 丹生都比売神社. Not checked on the ground
- Address
How to rent and drive a car in Japan →
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By train and bus
- From 笠田駅JR和歌山線
- By bus.
- From 妙寺駅JR和歌山線
- On foot.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
笠田駅からは、かつらぎ町コミュニティバス、もしくはタクシーをご利用ください。／妙寺駅は参詣道三谷坂の登り口となります。（徒歩 約２時間 トレッキングの準備が必要です）
Taken from the shrine's own website (アクセス | 丹生都比売神社, 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 60 spaces), free.
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. From this car park to the hall is about 110 m in a straight line (the walk is longer). The location is taken from OpenStreetMap and has not been checked on the ground.
第一・第二あわせて約60台。正月は臨時駐車場約27台を開設。大型バスは事前連絡が必要
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 (goshuin and charms).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
8:45-16:30（御朱印・お守り）／御祈祷 9:00-15:00
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
- Founding
- The shrine says it was founded more than 1,700 years ago.
- Founding
- According to the shrine's tradition, the goddess travelled the Kinokawa basin spreading farming and weaving, then settled here.
- History
- According to the shrine's tradition, the goddess's child deity appeared to Kobo Daishi as a hunter with white and black dogs and guided him.
- History
- When lightning burned Koyasan's Danjo Garan in the late Heian period, the base for its restoration was reportedly set here.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (ご由緒, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Niutsuhime-no-Okami 丹生都比売大神
- Takanomiko-no-Okami 高野御子大神
- Ogetsuhime-no-Okami 大食都比売大神 3 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Ichikishimahime-no-Mikoto 市杵島比売大神 2 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Goshuin (shrine seal)
- Available
- Yes
- Hours
- 8:45-16:30
Nationally designated cultural properties
- 丹生都比売神社本殿
-
Important Cultural Property
一間社春日造、檜皮葺
designated 1965-05-29 · mid-Edo period - 丹生都比売神社楼門
-
Important Cultural Property
三間一戸楼門、入母屋造、檜皮葺
designated 1908-04-23 · mid-Muromachi period - 銀銅蛭巻太刀拵
- National Treasure
- 兵庫鎖太刀
- Important Cultural Property
- 木造狛犬
- Important Cultural Property
- 木造狛犬
- Important Cultural Property
- 木造鍍金装神輿
- Important Cultural Property
- 法華経 八帖 後村上天皇宸翰寄進状 一巻
- Important Cultural Property
- 金銅琵琶（伝平政子奉納）
- Important Cultural Property
- 鍍金長覆輪太刀
- Important Cultural Property
- 鍍金長覆輪太刀
- Important Cultural Property
- 丹生都比売神社境内
- Historic Site
Source: the national register. All of them together →
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
10月16日 例祭
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 花盛祭
- 4月第二日曜日
- 御田祭（おんだまつり）
- 1月第三日曜日
- 厄除祭
- 1月第三日曜日
- 神還祭
- 7月18日
- 七夕祭・世界遺産登録記念祭
- 7月7日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Itakiso Jinja, about 26 km to the west in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingu (29 km west) and Otori Jinja (31 km north).
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 “by the power of its deity it drove back the Mongol invasions, and the shrine was made the ichinomiya of Kii Province”. It is the guardian shrine of Mount Kōya as a whole, and reached the title of ichinomiya by a different route from the other two shrines.
- https://niutsuhime.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 Kii Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Kii Province (Nankaidō)
- Prefecture
- Wakayama
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kanpei Taisha
Sources
- https://niutsuhime.or.jp/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://niutsuhime.or.jp/access/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://niutsuhime.or.jp/faq/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://niutsuhime.or.jp/about/gosaishin (checked 2026-09-10)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.