Kamine Shrine

photo by papakuro · CC BY 3.0

photo by papakuro · CC BY 3.0

Its 15-metre float opens every April; all four together every seven years.

The shrine, which tradition dates back about six hundred years, keeps its tie to the four floats of the Hitachi Furyūmono: about fifteen metres high, up to eight wide when they open out over five tiers, five tonnes each. Only one comes out each April for the parade along Hitachi's main street; all four together, with the mechanical puppets performing, can be seen only once every seven years, at the shrine's Grand Festival.

A Shinto shrine in Hitachi whose founding, according to tradition, goes back about six hundred years: first dedicated on the summit of Mount Kamine as protector of the village of Miyata, it was moved halfway up the slope because the pilgrimage was difficult, and then taken back to the summit as the inner shrine after an epidemic, while the lower shrine, where you pray today, remains the ‘satomiya’. It enshrines Izanagi, Izanami and Kumanokusuhi. The four floats and the rite of the Hitachi Furyūmono have been inscribed since 2009 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

ℹ️ By bus, 10 minutes from JR Hitachi Station to the ‘Kamine Kōen-guchi’ bus stop, then one minute on foot. The float can be seen once a year, in April, at the Hitachi Sakura Matsuri (2026: 1–12 April, main event 4–5 April); all four together only every seven years, at the shrine's Grand Festival (神峰神社大祭礼).

🚉 神峰公園口 · 11 min walk

Sources: kaminezinzya.org · ja.wikipedia.org · online.bunka.go.jp · ibarakiguide.jp

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