Shimotsuke Province Ichinomiya
Utsunomiya Futaarayama Jinja
宇都宮二荒山神社
Utsunomiya Futaarayama Jinja is the ichinomiya — the leading shrine — of the former Shimotsuke Province, in present-day Tochigi. It has a car park (about 300 spaces), paid. Opening hours end at 16:00 (shrine office). Without a car, a local tourism body gives 2 routes from a station (on foot, by bus), one of them a walk of about 10 min; the station names are listed below. The nearest other ichinomiya is Nikko Futarasan Jinja, 34 km to the north-west in a straight line.
Getting there
栃木県宇都宮市馬場通り 1-1-1
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
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By train and bus
- From 東武宇都宮駅東武宇都宮線
- On foot, about 10 min.
- From 宇都宮駅JR
- By bus, about 5 min.
The source, word for word (bus stop names included):
東武宇都宮線東武宇都宮駅から徒歩約10分、またはJR宇都宮駅から市内バス約5分、馬場町(二荒山神社前)下車
Taken from a local tourism body (宇都宮二荒山神社｜栃木県観光物産協会, 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 300 spaces), paid.
This routes you to the car park, not to the hall. From this car park to the hall is about 60 m in a straight line (the walk is longer). The location is taken from OpenStreetMap and has not been checked on the ground.
60分300円
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 (shrine office).
The full note from the source, in Japanese:
9:00-16:00（宇都宮観光コンベンション協会）※とちぎ旅ネットは 8:30-16:00 と記載しており食い違いがある。境内は 6:00-18:00
Closing times of every ichinomiya, earliest first →
Visiting the 2 ichinomiya in Tochigi in one day? Work out an order that reaches each office before it closes →
History in brief
- Founding
- The shrine's origins are said to go back about 1,600 years; it enshrines Toyokiirihiko no Mikoto, regarded as the founder of Utsunomiya.
- History
- The city name Utsunomiya is said to come from the shrine being called the 'ichi no miya' of Shimotsuke.
- History
- Minamoto no Yoritomo and Tokugawa Ieyasu are also said to have prayed here for victory.
Summarised from a local tourism body (宇都宮二荒山神社｜とちぎ旅ネット, checked 2026-10-08). Traditions are given as the shrine tells them, not as established history.
Enshrined deities
- Toyokiirihiko-no-Mikoto 豊城入彦命
The Tochigi tourism site says the shrine enshrines Toyokiirihiko-no-Mikoto, the founding ancestor of Utsunomiya.
Our English summary of the Japanese description. Spelling as given by the prefectural shrine office or local authority.
Festivals
Other festivals and rituals
- 秋山祭
- 10月21日
- 菊水祭
- 10月最終土・日曜日
- 天王祭
- 7月15日～20日
- 春渡祭
- 1月
- 田舞祭（堀米の田楽舞）
- 5月15日
Nearest ichinomiya
The closest is Nikko Futarasan Jinja, about 34 km to the north-west in a straight line, in the same province. After that come Tsutsukowake Jinja (66 km north-east) and Tsutsukowake Jinja (68 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
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.
Utsunomiya City’s official tourism site says: “Its origins go back about 1,600 years, and because it was called the ’ichinomiya of Shimotsuke’, there is a theory that the name of Utsunomiya derives from it.” No source document is named.
- https://www.utsunomiya-cvb.org/spot/detail_10002.html (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://www.tochigiji.or.jp/spot/s8161 (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 Shimotsuke Province page.
Historical rank
- Province
- Shimotsuke Province (Tōsandō)
- Prefecture
- Tochigi
- Engishiki (927)
- Myōjin Taisha
- Former state rank (1871–1946)
- Kokuhei Chūsha
Sources
- https://www.utsunomiya-cvb.org/spot/detail_10002.html (checked 2026-09-09)
- https://www.tochigiji.or.jp/spot/s8161 (checked 2026-09-09)
How we handle spellings, festival selection, former ranks and map accuracy is set out once on the About page.