Totomi Province Ichinomiya
Okuni Jinja
小國神社
Okuni Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Totomi Province, in present-day Shizuoka. It has a car park (about 700 spaces), free. Opening hours end at 16:00 (prayer-rite desk). Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 2 routes from a station (by bus); the station names are listed below. Its principal annual festival (reisai) falls on April 18 every year. We found 1 entry for the shrine in Japan’s national database of designated cultural properties. The nearest other ichinomiya is Kotonomama Hachimangu, 17 km to the east in a straight line.
Getting there
静岡県周智郡森町一宮3956-1
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
- From OpenStreetMap, as 小國神社. Not checked on the ground
- Address
How to rent and drive a car in Japan →
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By train and bus
- From 袋井駅JR
- By bus.
- From 遠州森駅天竜浜名湖鉄道
- By bus.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
JR袋井駅、天竜浜名湖鉄道 遠州森駅からは、秋葉バス「小國神社 開運線」で小國神社まで直通でご参拝いただけます。
Taken from the shrine's own website (交通案内 | 遠江国一宮 小國神社, 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 700 spaces), free.
無料駐車場は約700台。大型バスでお越しの際は専用の第2駐車場を利用します（入庫の際にロープを自分で外し、入庫後は再び閉める必要があります）。第5駐車場は現在工事中で利用できず、工事終了後も正月・七五三・紅葉の繁忙期のみの開放予定です。駐車場は期間によって利用できない場合があります。
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（授与所の時間は確認できず）
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 4 ichinomiya in Shizuoka in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Founding
- According to a shrine record of 1680, the deity was enshrined on Mt. Hongū on the 18th day of the 2nd month of the 16th year of Emperor Kinmei (555).
- Moved
- Later, an imperial envoy came from the capital and built halls at the present site, about 6 km away at the foot of the mountain.
- Buildings
- After a fire in Meiji 15, the main sanctuary was rebuilt with national funds in Meiji 19.
- History
- In the Edo period, the Tokugawa granted it an estate of 590 koku.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (小國神社の信仰｜小國神社, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Onamuchi-no-Mikoto 大己貴命 17 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
The shrine's website says its deity, Ōnamuchi-no-Mikoto, also called Daikoku-sama, is loved as the kind-hearted god who helped the White Hare of Inaba in the old myth.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Goshuin (shrine seal)
- Available
- Yes
Nationally designated cultural properties
- 小國神社の田遊び
- Intangible Folk Cultural Property selected for recording (folk performing arts)
Source: the national register. All of them together →
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
4月18日 例祭
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 十二段舞楽奉奏
- 4月18日に一番近い土・日曜日
- 田遊祭・田遊神事
- 1月3日
- 寒の丑の日水汲祭
- 寒の丑の日
- 初甲子祭
- 寒明け後の甲子の日
- 御田植祭
- 夏至の日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Kotonomama Hachimangu, about 17 km to the east in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Toga Jinja (44 km west) and Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha (77 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 presents it as the ichinomiya of Totomi Province. The sources it cites are an entry in the Chōya Gunsai (朝野群載) recording the appointment of a head priest in 1082, and shrine records from the Edo period; no source is given for the ichinomiya title itself.
- https://okunijinja.or.jp/beliefs/history/ (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 Totomi Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Totomi Province (Tōkaidō)
- Prefecture
- Shizuoka
- Engishiki (927)
- Shōsha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kensha
Sources
- https://okunijinja.or.jp/access/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://okunijinja.or.jp/beliefs/history/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://okunijinja.or.jp/pray/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://okunijinja.or.jp/access (checked 2026-09-10)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.