Hikawa Nyotai-jinja Shrine

Hikawa Nyotai-jinja Shrine is a historically significant shrine tucked away in the Minuma wetlands area. If you find yourself walking along the rice fields here, this shrine is a great spot to make you feel as though you’ve truly stepped out into Japanese nature. While the shrines and temples in Tokyo are also large and historical, you won’t get that same feeling of being surrounded by nature as you will here.

Hikawa Nyotai-jinja Shrine has historically been dedicated to female health, and the shrine’s way to manifest this is their sale of small unique dolls. Visitors can buy the dolls on-site. Then when their wishes or requests come true, they return the dolls to the shrine to be on display with a custom-made kimono. You cannot buy the kimono at any store, so it must be either hand-made or made using some other creative method. It’s very cool to see generations of history being enshrined through all these dolls, with their unique dresses on.

While praying is perhaps the main objective of visiting shrines or any other religious institution, Japanese shrines have many unique ways of attracting people, and will often send you home with some sort of charm, memento, or in this case a small doll. A very neat souvenir, and hopefully a reason to come back in the future, to add your own piece of history to the collection at Hikawa Nyotai-jinja Shrine.