Kitaguchi Hongū Fuji Sengen Jinja

photo by 江戸村のとくぞう · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Sakaori ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

On 26–27 August the Yoshida fire festival is held here, one of the strangest festivals in Japan.

The great torii (the gate that marks the sacred boundary) opens the Yoshida Trail up Fuji, which starts from this shrine. On either side of the main hall grow two sacred trees: a cedar (富士太郎杉) about a thousand years old and two cypresses that have grown together like a couple (富士夫婦檜). On 26–27 August the shrine hosts the Chinkasai (鎮火祭), the Yoshida fire festival: a procession with torches and a portable shrine, one of the three strangest festivals in Japan.

According to tradition, an altar was set up here during the legendary reign of Emperor Keikō, when the hero Yamato Takeru passed through on an expedition to the east; the current structure dates from 1615. It is part of the Fuji UNESCO World Heritage Site as the starting point of the Yoshida Trail.

ℹ️ Shrine grounds free and always open; the offices and amulet sales have their own hours. The Yoshida Trail up Fuji is open only in the climbing season (July to early September).

🚉 Mt Fuji · 24 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org

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