Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu

Tachikawa Suitengu: a god of safe childbirth that moved from Sunagawa No. 5

According to the title of its official site, the shrine’s full name is “Azusami Tenjin Shrine / Tachikawa Suitengu”. Two names joined by a single dot.

What is a Suitengu? According to the Digital Daijisen dictionary, the head shrine of all Japan’s Suitengu shrines is in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, known as a guardian of water and as a god of safe childbirth and protection from drowning. The Suitengu in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, the same dictionary says, began in 1818, when Arima Yorinori, lord of the Kurume domain, set up a place in his Edo mansion for worshipping the Kurume Suitengu from afar. The Sekai Daihyakka encyclopedia notes that its custom of handing out maternity sashes on the “Day of the Dog” became widely known among the people of Tokyo.

So why is there a Suitengu in Sunagawa?

Several sources on the shrine’s history give the same year. Tachikawa Suitengu originally stood in Sunagawa No. 5 (goban), and was moved into the grounds of Azusami Tenjin Shrine in 1961. A website by a researcher of goshuin (shrine seal stamps) says so, and so does a note by someone who records their shrine visits. And that note and Wikipedia both say the move was due to the expansion of the US military’s Tachikawa Air Base.

Sunagawa No. 5. Hear that place name, and people in Tachikawa will remember a particular event. In 1955 the local community was notified of a plan to expand the US Tachikawa base. The land earmarked for expansion was in the Sunagawa No. 4 and No. 5 districts. It was the start of the long protest movement later called the Sunagawa Struggle. The course of the struggle belongs to another article in this series. Here I will note only that this shrine was one of its stages.

According to material collected by a citizens’ group that gathers records of the Sunagawa Struggle, on 18 June 1955 a mass rally of townspeople “absolutely opposed to the expansion of Tachikawa Base” was held at Azusami Tenjin Shrine, and 1,300 people gathered. Rallies were held in these grounds again and again afterwards. In October 1956, amid repeated clashes over forced land surveys, the day after a temporary halt to the surveying was announced, a national rally was held at this shrine and 4,000 people gathered, the same group’s timeline records.

A god of safe childbirth, pushed along by the base expansion, moved into the grounds of the shrine where the rallies against that expansion had been held. Line up the years in the order the documents give them and that is what you get. What circumstances or feelings lay behind it, the documents I read did not say.

Today, most people who come to Tachikawa Suitengu probably do not know that history. Those who come are women with large bellies, and their families.

According to the official site, the prayer for safe childbirth is also called obi-iwai, “sash celebration”: on the Day of the Dog (the dog day in the traditional twelve-day zodiac cycle) after entering the fifth month of pregnancy, you tie a white cotton maternity sash and pray for a safe birth and the health of mother and child. Here the “Day of the Dog” is written in soft hiragana, and prayers are accepted on any day, not just Dog days. Those who receive the prayer are given a talisman, an amulet, the Suitengu maternity sash, and a safe-childbirth protective arrow with an inu-hariko attached. An inu-hariko is a papier-mâché dog charm; the dog, a guardian of safe childbirth, has the power to drive away evil, the shrine writes.

According to the festival-information company’s site, near the shrine, on top of a water basin by a sign reading “Toyo-no-Izumi”, stands a statue modelled on the inu-hariko. And the writer adds: “it looks for all the world like a cat.” The childbirth dog looks like a cat at the Cat-Return Shrine. The air of a place, it seems, can change even how a statue looks.

As a rule, up to two adults may enter the hall for the prayer. But for families who want the grandparents to come in too, there is a separate “prayer with grandparents” for up to six people. Before a grandchild’s birth, grandparents want to stand before the gods as well. That feeling is surely the same in every family, and the shrine understands it.

The FAQ on the official site has other answers that fit family life. Families who have had the hatsu-miyamairi (a baby’s first shrine visit) prayer are given a “tooth-strengthening stone” for the okuizome, the ceremony of a baby’s first meal — though the stone cannot be given out on its own. The safe-childbirth talisman is returned at the first shrine visit, and the first-shrine-visit talisman is returned at Shichi-Go-San, the festival for children aged three, five and seven. The approach has no steps and can be used by wheelchair, but the worship hall where prayers take place is a building from the Edo period, so you cannot enter it in a wheelchair, the site says honestly.

Returning talismans, coming back to the same shrine at each milestone of a child’s growth. Someone who came to pray for a safe birth comes back next with a baby in her arms for the first shrine visit, and a few years later with a child dressed up for Shichi-Go-San.

Here I felt I could see half an answer to my opening question.

The guardian shrine of all Sunagawa: 390-odd years of festivals and drums

I want to say something about Azusami Tenjin Shrine itself. That it was enshrined in 1629 as the village guardian when Sunagawa’s new fields were opened up; that its main hall is said to be the oldest wooden building in the city; and that a daruma fair is held on New Year’s Day — those I covered in the article on the Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa. Here are other stories.

First, there is a parent shrine. According to the Tokyo Shinto Shrine Association, the head shrine is the Azusami Tenjin Shrine in Tonogaya, Mizuho town, Nishitama district — one of the ancient shrines of Tama district listed in the Engishiki, a tenth-century register, a so-called shikinaisha. It is said to have been founded in 892, the association writes. As for the unusual name “Azusami”, theories abound: that it comes from the azusa-yumi, a sacred bow; from azusa, an old name for a tree; or that it means “sweet water”. If people invited a god whose name meant “sweet water” to new fields on a dry plateau, it would have been a heartfelt wish. But there is no document to settle which theory is right.

What is fun is that parent and child shrines lie on almost the same bus route. To reach Azusami Tenjin in Sunagawa, take a Hakonegasaki-bound bus from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station to Sunagawa Yonban. To reach the head shrine in Mizuho, according to the Tokyo Shinto Shrine Association, you also take a Tachikawa Bus bound for Hakonegasaki from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station. Parent and child shrines that parted some 390 years ago are today joined by more or less a single bus route.

There is one more Azusami Tenjin Shrine in Tachikawa: the one in Nishisunacho, said to have been founded around 1718 as the guardian of Tonogaya Shinden, new fields opened by the people of Tonogaya village in the Kyoho era. Every time they broke new ground, people seem to have taken the same god with them as they moved east across the plateau.

Then there are the deities. According to the official site, two are enshrined: Sukunahikona no Mikoto, known as a god of medicine, health and wisdom, and Ame-no-Koyane no Mikoto, regarded as a god of literature and the arts. Some sources say it was originally Sukunahikona alone, and Ame-no-Koyane was added later when the Hie Shrine was merged in. The goshuin researcher’s site dates that merger to 1910. A shrine of the god of medicine later gained a god of literature and the arts. About eighty years after that, an artist came along and gave it a cat’s name without asking. The gods’ staffing decisions turn out to be quite logical.

Many more gods gather in the grounds. The smaller shrines listed on the official site are the Kokage Shrine, Yakumo Shrine, Hoso Shrine, Inari Shrine, Tenjin Shrine, Mitake Shrine, Sengen Shrine, Kotohira Shrine and Yasaka Shrine, each with its blessings: warding off misfortune; warding off epidemics and matchmaking; abundant harvests; learning; protection from fire and theft; matchmaking and safe childbirth; road safety; warding off epidemics. According to Wikipedia, the Yakumo Shrine originally stood in Sunagawa No. 1, the Sengen and Kotohira shrines in Sunagawa No. 3, and the Yasaka Shrine was originally a subsidiary of the Suitengu. Like Tachikawa Suitengu, gods from the other numbered wards gathered into these grounds as the times required. Being the guardian shrine of all Sunagawa also meant being the place where all of Sunagawa’s gods moved house to.

The main hall has recently been brought back to life. According to a report by Tachikawa’s Board of Education, preservation repairs were carried out on the main hall from fiscal 2017 to 2019 and completed in July 2019. The eligible project cost came to about ¥27.8 million, half of it subsidised by the city. The hall was opened to the public on 20 and 26 October that year. According to the city’s cultural-property commentary, in this restoration marking the 390th year since the shrine’s founding, the original red-ochre bengara colouring and the carvings — lions, dragons and more on the beam-ends — were restored in vivid colours. Photos in the report show carvings of lions, dragons and a baku. Normally the main hall sits inside a protective outer hall and cannot be seen, but in there, a baku — the mythical beast that eats bad dreams — has been repainted in brilliant colours. Rather a flashy outfit for a dream-eater.

The 390th-anniversary festival of 2019 produced another memento. According to the city’s walking-route commentary, to mark it, a great drum 5 shaku 2 sun (about 1.57 metres) across — the largest in the city — was made and unveiled. The annual festival is held on the Sunday nearest 15 September, and is lively with the great drum and portable shrines, the city writes. A local information site reports that the great drum, paraded for its debut in 2019, was then halted by the pandemic, and that in 2023 its procession along the Itsukaichi Kaido was revived.

Sunagawa’s festivals have always raised big things. At the end of the Edo period, the city writes, the great banner that Sunagawa’s No. 10 ward put up at festival time to pray for a good harvest had a pole about 22 metres long, said to be among the largest in the whole Kanto region. That story is told in more detail in the article on the old villages. One of the biggest banners in Kanto, and the biggest drum in the city. The long village on the dry plateau, it seems, just wanted to be big on festival days.

The shrine in the Showa era: then and now

It may surprise visitors today, but the name of these grounds entered the record through the base, before the cats.

In June 1955, when 1,300 people gathered in the grounds, this was not yet Tachikawa. It was Sunagawa town, in Kitatama district. According to the city’s timeline, Tachikawa and Sunagawa merged in 1963. In 1961, when the Suitengu moved here from Sunagawa No. 5, this shrine was still the guardian of Sunagawa town.

There was no station either. Musashi-Sunagawa Station on the Seibu Haijima Line, which the Tokyo Shinto Shrine Association names as the nearest, opened in 1983, according to the city’s timeline. Until then, anyone coming to this shrine by train had to walk a long way from some station or sway along on a bus. The “12 minutes’ walk” in the association’s guide is a number that came into being only near the end of the Showa era.

The Kokage Shrine moved from its own building to the side of the worship hall in 1980. Yamashita’s cat story appeared in Geijutsu Shincho in 1987. The name “Cat-Return Shrine” was born at the very tail end of the Showa era.

Then, these grounds were filled with the voices of people trying to protect land their ancestors had cleared. Now, the ema rack is filled with words calling cats that have not come home. The content of the prayers could hardly be more different. And yet both are about desperately trying, here, to hold on to something precious slipping out of one’s hands. The people of Showa-era Sunagawa and the cat owners of the Reiwa era have walked through the same torii and bowed before the same worship hall.

Why the cats come home

Why do cats come home here?

The documents do not answer. The shrine itself says only that it has received reports of cats returning safely after people wrote their wishes on ema. The junior priest said: only the gods know. I can say no more than that.

But having followed the documents and people’s voices, I have come to see one thing.

This shrine is a place for people who are waiting. People waiting for a cat that has not come back write on their plaques, “The whole family is waiting.” People waiting for a child to be born come for maternity sashes on the Day of the Dog. They return talismans at the first shrine visit, again at Shichi-Go-San, coming back at each milestone. Villagers facing the base expansion gathered in these grounds and prayed that their land would not be taken. A drum made for the 390th-anniversary festival fell silent for a while during the pandemic, then paraded down the highway again and came back to the shrine.

Waiting for a lost cat to return and waiting for a new life to arrive. The two are much closer than I had thought. Both mean simply waiting — for a “welcome home” and a “welcome”, neither of which you can bring about by your own strength. That a cat god and a childbirth god stand in one shrine may be nothing more than the result of circumstances piling up by chance. But seen through the eyes of someone who is waiting, there could hardly be a better match.

The head of the “I’m Home Cat” has been stroked by a great many hands. Every one of them was a hand waiting for someone to come home.

Whether or not you keep a cat, some weekend try getting off the bus once at Sunagawa Yonban. Stand in front of the ema rack and you will be surprised, first of all, that out at the western edge of Tokyo there is a place where so much “waiting” gathers.

Quiz answer

The answer is B. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Yosuke Yamashita played the gagaku piece “Etenraku” on the piano, recorded it and dedicated it to the shrine in thanks for his cat’s return. The piano melody, the article says, still plays quietly in the grounds today.

Before you go

• Address: 4-1-1 Sunagawacho, Tachikawa, Tokyo (Azusami Tenjin Shrine / Tachikawa Suitengu).
• From central Tokyo and Kanagawa: About 30 minutes from Shinjuku to Tachikawa Station on the JR Chuo Line (according to a Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Environment walking-trail leaflet). The JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki Station and Tachikawa Station, so from the Kawasaki side you can also reach Tachikawa without changing trains and transfer to the bus at the North Exit. Check that day’s timetable.
• Getting there from Tachikawa Station: From Tachikawa Bus stop no. 1 at the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, take a bus bound for Mitsufuji or Hakonegasaki Station and get off at “Sunagawa Yonban”; the shrine is right there. The ride is about 15 minutes (according to the shrine’s official site). It is a 12-minute walk from Musashi-Sunagawa Station on the Seibu Haijima Line (according to the Tokyo Shinto Shrine Association), and about 20 minutes on foot from Sunagawa-Nanaban Station on the Tama Monorail.
• By car: At the “Sunagawa Yonban Koban-mae” traffic lights on the Itsukaichi Kaido. Parking for 32 cars. The official site warns that from 7:00 to 9:00 and 17:00 to 19:00 you cannot turn right into the entrance at that junction.
• Opening times: Gate hours, the counter hours for cat ema, cat amulets and goshuin, and prayer schedules may change. Check the official site for the latest: https://azusami-suitengu.net/ (Cat-Return Shrine page: https://azusami-suitengu.net/cat_came_homes/ )
• No pets: Pets may not be brought into the grounds, not even in your arms.
• Goshuin: Seal stamps are given on separate sheets of paper; the shrine does not take in stamp books (according to the official site).
• From afar: You can request a cat ema by post (¥1,100 by registered cash mail, postage included; details on the official site).
• Etiquette: This is a working shrine where families come to pray for births and children. The main hall sits inside a protective outer hall and normally cannot be seen.
• What to combine it with: North of the shrine, the green path along the Tamagawa Aqueduct runs east–west. You can walk the Sunagawa village streets along the Itsukaichi Kaido, where long, narrow strip-shaped plots survive, or visit Tenno Bridge and Konpira-yama. Head south and you reach the Sunagawa Gate of Showa Kinen Park.
• General tips: Carry an IC transit card such as Suica or PASMO, and check bus times before you set out.

After your visit, at Tachikawa Station North Exit

From Sunagawa to Tachikawa Station is about 15 minutes by bus. After walking the Itsukaichi Kaido, crouching to stroke the stone cat and writing your wish on an ema, your body may be colder and stiffer than you think.

A one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), on the third floor of the Etoile Building, 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. It is a lava-stone hot yoga studio, where you practise on a floor laid with lava-stone plates. Besides room-temperature yoga and Pilates, it offers women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, and more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30, with no difference between days of the week — in time whether you visit the shrine in the morning or come back to the station in the evening.

First-timers can try a yoga lesson for ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and a mat included as rentals. Pregnant guests — including anyone who has just come from praying at the Suitengu — cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available.

Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, who holds Japan’s top English qualification (Eiken Grade 1) and a perfect TOEIC score and once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and who lived in Alaska for three years, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself (visitors from abroad have even left Google reviews about the care they received in English); if you would like an English-friendly lesson, just say so when you book.

• On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
• Trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

At Sunagawa Yonban on the Itsukaichi Kaido, the “I’m Home Cat” is there again today, standing in for somebody’s own cat, waiting its turn to be stroked.

Cover photo: The worship hall and grounds of Azusami Tenjin Shrine in Sunagawacho, Tachikawa (December 2019) (Photo: Quatrogatos / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)