Shinano Province Ichinomiya
Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya
諏訪大社下社秋宮
Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Shinano Province, in present-day Nagano. It has a car park (about 80 spaces); the sources we checked do not give a fee. Opening hours end at 17:00 (charm counter). Without a car, a local tourism body gives 1 route from a station; the station names are listed below. We found 2 entries for the shrine in Japan’s national database of designated cultural properties. The nearest other ichinomiya is Oyama Jinja (Mine Honsha), 70 km to the north-west in a straight line.
Getting there
長野県諏訪郡下諏訪町5828
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 諏訪大社 下社秋宮. Not checked on the ground
- Address
How to rent and drive a car in Japan →
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By train and bus
- From 下諏訪駅JR中央本線
- 10 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
アクセス 岡谷ICから 4km 15分 諏訪ICから 10km 25分 JR中央本線 下諏訪駅下車 10分
Taken from a local tourism body (諏訪大社下社秋宮 | Go NAGANO 長野県公式観光サイト, 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 80 spaces); the sources we checked do not give a fee.
普通車80台・大型車4台（長野県観光機構）。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 17:00 (charm counter).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
8:30-17:00（授与所。宝物殿 9:30-15:00、1月1〜3日は休館）
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 4 ichinomiya in Nagano in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Buildings
- The offering and worship hall was completed in 1781 under the master builder Tatekawa Washiro Tomimune, known for its carvings.
- Buildings
- The kagura hall was completed in 1835 by the second-generation Tatekawa Washiro Tomimasa.
Summarised from the shrine's own website (諏訪大社 下社秋宮, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Takeminakata-no-Mikoto 建御名方神 6 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Yasakatome-no-Kami 八坂刀売神 3 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
- Kotoshironushi-Mikoto 八重事代主神 6 ichinomiya enshrine this deity →
The shrine treats a yew tree as the sacred body (go-shintai) of the Autumn Shrine, rather than a building.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the shrine's own website.
Nationally designated cultural properties
Source: the national register. All of them together →
Festivals
- Principal annual festival
-
八月一日 遷座祭（お舟祭）
source
The shrine itself does not call this its 例祭. We placed its heaviest festival here; that is our judgement, not the shrine's wording.
Other festivals and rituals
- 式年造営御柱大祭（御柱祭）
- 七年目毎の寅年と申年
- 遷座祭
- 二月一日
- 御射山社祭
- 八月二十六日・二十七日
- 菊花奉献奉告祭
- 十一月二日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Oyama Jinja (Mine Honsha), about 70 km to the north-west in a straight line, the ichinomiya of Ecchu Province. After that come Ichinomiya Nukisaki Jinja (72 km east) and Sengen Jinja (72 km south-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
Listed by the pilgrimage association
It appears on the map published by the Ichinomiya Pilgrimage Association. We have not yet checked other primary sources.
- 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 Shinano Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Shinano Province (Tōsandō)
- Prefecture
- Nagano
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kanpei Taisha
Sources
- https://suwataisha.or.jp/visiting/ (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://suwataisha.or.jp/about/miyamori/ (checked 2026-09-10)
- https://suwataisha.or.jp/access/ (checked 2026-10-01)
- https://db.go-nagano.net/topics_detail6/id=4512 (checked 2026-10-15)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.