Bingo Province Ichinomiya
Susanoo Jinja
素盞嗚神社
Susanoo Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Bingo Province, in present-day Hiroshima. It has a car park (about 27 spaces), free. Without a car, the shrine's own website gives 2 routes from a station (on foot, by bus), one of them a walk of about 3 min; the station names are listed below. The nearest other ichinomiya is Kibitsu Jinja (Bingo), 2.1 km to the north-west in a straight line.
Getting there
広島県福山市新市町戸手 1-1
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
- Derived from the address down to the street number, via Japan's national mapping agency. Not a survey of the hall itself
- Address
How to rent and drive a car in Japan →
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By train and bus
- From 上戸手駅JR福塩線
- On foot, about 3 min.
- From 福山駅
- By bus, about 5 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
JR福山駅より 福塩線「上戸手駅」下車 徒歩約3分／福山駅前 中国バス「府中行」より 「上戸手（寺岡記念病院前）」下車 徒歩約5分
Taken from the shrine's own website (アクセス | 備後國一の宮 素盞嗚神社, 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 27 spaces), free.
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. From this car park to the hall is about 50 m in a straight line (the walk is longer). The location is taken from OpenStreetMap and has not been checked on the ground.
3か所すべて無料。第一鳥居北側南列8台／社務所北側16台／神谷川橋東詰交差点横は大型バス優先3台
The note above is in Japanese; it usually records dates when the car park is closed, and the fee.
Visiting the 2 ichinomiya in Hiroshima in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Founding
- The shrine says it was founded in the reign of Emperor Tenmu (673-686) and rebuilt in the reign of Emperor Daigo.
- Name
- Under Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, it was called Gion-sha, Tenno-sha and other names.
- Name
- After the Meiji-era order separating Shinto and Buddhism banned Buddhist terms in shrine names, it was renamed Susanoo Jinja.
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
- Susano-no-Mikoto 素盞嗚尊 4 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Kushinadahime-no-Mikoto 奇稲田姫命 2 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- 八王子命 八王子命
Subsidiary shrines in the precinct enshrine Somin Shōrai, a smallpox deity, and Sugawara no Michizane.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
7月 素盞嗚神社例大祭（祇園祭）
source
Other festivals and rituals
- 茅の輪くぐり大祓式
- 8月8日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Kibitsu Jinja (Bingo), about 2.1 km to the north-west in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Oyamazumi Jinja (42 km south-west) and Kibitsu Jinja (54 km 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 that “the Susanoo Jinja (須佐能袒神社) entered as the one shrine of Fukatsu District in the Engishiki Jinmyōchō is this shrine”, and that “the shrine’s old name, Ekinokuma no Kunitsuyashiro, appears in the surviving fragments of the Bingo Fudoki (compiled in 713)”. The shrine writes its own name as “Bingo no Kuni Ichinomiya Susanoo Jinja”.
- https://susanoojinja.com/about/ (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 Bingo Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Bingo Province (San'yōdō)
- Prefecture
- Hiroshima
- Engishiki (927)
- Shōsha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kensha
Sources
- https://susanoojinja.com/about/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://susanoojinja.com/access/ (checked 2026-09-09)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.