Kotohira-gū

photo by Kanchi1979 · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

785 steps to the shrine, 1,368 in all: patron of seafarers since the nineteenth century.

You climb between two rows of shops and inns, past the treasure museum, up the 785 steps to the main shrine, at 251 metres; another 583 steps lead to the inner shrine, the Genrei-jinja, at 421 metres, where the woods grow denser and the visitors thin out.

Founded, according to tradition, when the god Ōmononushi set up a temporary shrine on Mount Zōzu, in the Edo period it was the only pilgrimage destination that ordinary people could travel to freely, so much so that ‘a visit to Konpira-san’ became a dream shared all over Japan. The main deities are Ōmononushi and Emperor Sutoku. From the nineteenth century sailors entrusted their fate to it: they threw barrels of sake marked for the shrine into the sea, so that the current would carry them ashore in their place, and entrusted the ‘konpira-inu’ with an offering round the neck when their master could not make the climb.

ℹ️ Entry to the approach paths always free of charge, gates 6:00–18:00; the main shrine can be visited 7:00–17:00, the inner shrine 9:00–16:30. Treasure museum with a separate ticket. Many shops along the climb hire out walking sticks and offer paid palanquin rides for the first stretches.

🚉 Kotohira · 24 min walk

Sources: konpira.or.jp · ja.wikipedia.org · konpira.or.jp

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