Hikawa Shrine, Shinto shrine in Kawagoe, Japan

Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine stands in Miyashita-chō, Kawagoe, Saitama. Its main hall, completed in 1849 with a donation from Matsudaira Narinori, has an irimoya-style copper roof and carvings by Shimamura Genzō and Iida Ganjirō. The grounds also hold a dance hall built in 1704, a large wooden torii inscribed by Katsu Kaishu, and a small stream used for floating paper dolls.

Tradition holds that the shrine was founded in 541, when a light seen nightly on the Iruma River was taken as the radiance of the Hikawa deity and the shrine was invited to this spot. In 1457 Ota Dokan, builder of Kawagoe Castle, worshipped here and left a waka poem. Successive Kawagoe domain lords patronised it, with Sakai Tadakatsu, Hotta Masamori and Matsudaira Narinori funding shrine buildings; the main hall was completed in 1849. A stone sword dug up in 1948 showed a settlement and rites here in the fifth century.

The shrine is known for enmusubi, matchmaking, because two married couples are among its five deities. Each morning at eight, shrine maidens wrap white gravel from before the main hall in hemp netting and priests bless it as the Enmusubi-tama, twenty of which are given out. From July to September, over 2,000 Edo glass wind chimes hang in the grounds for the Enmusubi Furin event, and visitors tie wish strips to them.

The shrine is at 2-11-3 Miyashita-machi, Kawagoe. Take a Tobu bus from Kawagoe Station (Tobu Tojo or JR Kawagoe line) or Hon-Kawagoe Station (Seibu Shinjuku line) and get off at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine; from Kitamachi it is a five-minute walk. The Koedo loop bus also stops at Hikawa Shrine. By car, about twenty minutes from the Kawagoe interchange via Route 16 and Route 254.

The shrine's wooden torii is among Japan's largest wooden torii, and the plaque bearing the shrine's name was written by Katsu Kaishu. The main hall, completed in 1849 with a donation from Matsudaira Narisada, was the first Hikawa shrine building designated a National Important Cultural Property.