Sagami Province Ichinomiya
Samukawa Jinja
寒川神社
Samukawa Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Sagami Province, in present-day Kanagawa. It has a car park; the sources we checked give neither its size nor a fee. Opening hours end at 17:00 (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 September 20 every year. The nearest other ichinomiya is Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, 17 km to the east in a straight line.
Getting there
神奈川県高座郡寒川町宮山3916
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:
「全ての駐車場が左折入庫となります」。また「警察からの指導により、駐車場入庫のための路上での入庫待ち、また近隣への路上駐車は禁止となっております」。圏央道「寒川北インター」より神社駐車場まで約5分ですが、繁忙期はインター出口から神社駐車場まで時間がかかる可能性があります。
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 宮山駅ＪＲ相模線
- On foot, 5 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
最寄り駅はＪＲ相模線の「宮山」駅です。 電車でお越しの場合 ＪＲ相模線「宮山」駅より 徒歩５分
Taken from the shrine's own website (神社への道案内 | 八方除 寒川神社, 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; the sources we checked give neither its size nor a fee.
第一〜第四駐車場があり、「第４駐車場は繁忙時のみ開放します」。正月期間は第2・第3・第4駐車場が1月4日から、第1駐車場は1月6日午前から順次使用可能になります。台数・料金は公式に記載がありません。
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 17:00 (prayer-rite desk).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
祈祷受付 8:00-17:00（年中無休。正月期間は受付開始が早まる）
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 2 ichinomiya in Kanagawa in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Founding
- The founding date is unknown, but records tell of offerings in the reign of Emperor Yuryaku and of a shrine building erected in 727.
- History
- The earliest official record is an entry in the Shoku Nihon Koki stating that the shrine received a divine rank in 846.
- History
- Warlords such as Minamoto no Yoritomo, Hojo Yoshitoki and Takeda Shingen, and generations of the Tokugawa family, were devoted to the shrine.
- History
- Tradition says Takeda Shingen stopped here in 1569 on his way to attack Odawara Castle and dedicated a helmet.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (寒川神社 御由緒, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Samukawahiko-no-Mikoto 寒川比古命
- Samukawahime-no-Mikoto 寒川比女命
The shrine's website says Samukawahiko-no-Mikoto and Samukawahime-no-Mikoto are enshrined together as Samukawa Daimyōjin, revered as the deity who opened up the Kantō region around Sagami and taught the basics of food, clothing and shelter.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Goshuin (shrine seal)
- Available
- Yes
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
9月20日 例祭
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 國府祭
- 5月5日
- 浜降祭
- 第3月曜日
- 流鏑馬神事
- 9月19日
- 武佐弓祭
- 1月8日
- 祈年祭 並 田打舞神事
- 2月17日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, about 17 km to the east in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Ono Jinja (31 km north) and Mishima Taisha (51 km south-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
Documented by a public source
A public body — the city, the prefecture, or the prefectural shrine office — describes this shrine as the ichinomiya of its province.
Listed on the map published by the Ichinomiya Pilgrimage Association.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Shrine Agency gives as grounds a record in the Sōkoku Fudoki (総国風土記) of offerings made in the reign of Emperor Yūryaku, and the shrine’s designation in the Engishiki as “the only great shrine in Sagami Province to receive provincial offerings” together with its ranking as a myōjin taisha. It is one of the few cases in this survey where the grounds for the title were named down to the source document.
- https://www.kanagawa-jinja.or.jp/shrine/1206056-000/ (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 Sagami Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Sagami Province (Tōkaidō)
- Prefecture
- Kanagawa
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kokuhei Chūsha
Sources
- https://www.kanagawa-jinja.or.jp/shrine/1206056-000/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://samukawajinjya.jp/worship/gosyuin.html (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://samukawajinjya.jp/access/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://samukawajinjya.jp/info/468.html (checked 2026-09-10)
- https://samukawajinjya.jp/php/dl.php?file=info/upload/75da6040ac75a47898240b18dc31a66c7a0b74be.pdf&name=%E4%BA%A4%E9%80%9A%E3%81%AE%E3%81%94%E6%A1%88%E5%86%85.pdf (checked 2026-09-10)
- https://samukawajinjya.jp/about/main-deities.html (checked 2026-09-10)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.