Iwakiyama Shrine

photo by 雷太 · CC BY 2.0

photo by Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan · CC BY 2.0

Its August festival climbs the mountain barefoot: national intangible heritage since 1980.

At the foot of Mount Iwaki (1,625 m, the ‘Fuji of Tsugaru’ for its conical outline), the shrine was founded about 1,200 years ago, in 780, when the first structure rose on the summit itself. Every year, on the day corresponding to the first day of the eighth month in the old lunar calendar, the Oyama Sankei takes the faithful up the mountain barefoot in a rite of thanksgiving for the harvest: the procession is a nationally designated important intangible cultural property.

The main Shinto shrine of Mount Iwaki, protector of the Tsugaru plain and affectionately called ‘O-Iwaki-sama’ by local worshippers. Historic seat of the region's mountain worship, with buildings dating from the Edo period.

ℹ️ Open 8:00–17:00 in summer, 8:30–16:00 in winter. About 35 minutes by car from JR Hirosaki, or 43 minutes by Kōnan bus to ‘Iwakiyama-jinja-mae’.

🚉 岩木山神社前 · 3 min walk

Sources: aomori-tourism.com · tabi.jtb.or.jp

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