Niwaji is said to have received its place name because its land was once the territory of Kyoto's Ninanji temple. Believed to have been built in the early Muromachi period, it was called Hakusan Gongensha at the time. In 1633, after enshrining Sugawara-no-Michizane, people began referring to the shrine as a "Tenmangu" (as Michizane was known as "Tenjin" post-deification). Because the shrine was once washed away when a protective levee broke, the shrine was moved to a location near the center of the village. There are a number of trees growing on the shrine grounds.