Visited in person · Original photography
Origins and founding
Guardian shrine of Edo Castle, now the Imperial Palace. It is said to have begun when the Edo clan enshrined a Sanno shrine here. In 1478 Ota Dokan brought the deity of the Kawagoe Sanno shrine into Edo Castle, and it became the guardian shrine inside the castle for the Tokugawa family. Formerly ranked a Kanpei Taisha (imperial shrine of the first rank). Named a provisional imperial-envoy shrine in 1868.
A stone monument reading "Sanno Hie Jinja" stands beside the road, with a stone lantern.
Sanno Otokozaka. An escalator runs beside the stone steps.
What to see
The Sanno torii, with the triangular top distinctive to Sanno worship / an escalator to the shrine buildings / monkeys as divine messengers, linked by wordplay to masaru, "evil departs" / rows of vermilion torii on the Inari approach.
A shrine building with "Sanno Yume Goten" on its plaque. High-rise buildings press close behind it.
A wisteria trellis covers the corridor. Green leaves still wrap the whole passage after the flowers have gone.
Cultural context
The head shrine is Hiyoshi Taisha in Shiga, regarded as the guardian of Mount Hiei. It is a standard example of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism (→ article Japan and its shrines). The Sanno Matsuri is known as a Tenka Matsuri, a festival of the realm.