Ikebukuro Hikawa Shrine
池袋氷川神社From ancient times to the present day, it has been revered as the guardian deity of generations of people living in this land as the guardian of Ikebukuro Village.
It is also said to be a shrine that split off from the Hikawa Shrine in Omiya City, Saitama Prefecture (Musashi Kuni Ichinomiya, a government shrine listed in the Enki Shiki Shrine Name Book of the Heian period).
The name of Ikebukuro is written as "Ikebukuro Village, Bushu Toshima District" in the "Odawara Shusho Administrative Book" of the second year of Eiroku (1559 AD) in the Muromachi period 430 years ago, and it is recorded that the village was already formed at that time along with Nagasaki, Sugamen (Sugamo), Komagome, Zoshitani, and Takada in the area.
In the article on Ikebukuro Village in the "New Musashi Fudo Chronicle" of the first year of Tenpo (1830), there is a description of "Hikawasha Murano Chinmori".
At the time of the Great Showa War, the city was devastated by the Tokyo Air Raid, but through the united cooperation of the clan and children, it was able to recover despite the chaos after the war.
The current shrine hall is the second building after the war, which was completed as a general dedication project for the Gozoei clan in the 40th year of the Showa era.
From the precincts of this shrine, pottery fragments estimated to have been used in the late Jomon period, about 3,500 years ago, have been excavated and collected. In addition, the shell mounds discovered in the surrounding area from the precincts to the Yazui River during the Meiji era are known as the "Ikebukuro Village Shell Mounds", and curved balls, suge balls, and clay figurines have also been excavated. You can see the state of the ancient people who lived in this land, which is the first item in the historical chronology of Toshima City. (From the stone monument in the precincts)