Oiwa Shrine

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

photo by Σ64 · CC BY 4.0

Three metres above the ground the trunk of the Sanbon-sugi splits into three, and has done for five hundred years.

At the foot of Mount Oiwa, held to be the oldest sacred mountain of the former province of Hitachi, the shrine enshrines a total of 188 deities under one roof, a concentration that has earned it a reputation as one of the strongest power spots in Japan. Its sacred tree, the Sanbon-sugi (three-trunked cedar), divides into three trunks about three metres above the ground: about five hundred years old, the largest in the city of Hitachi, a prefectural Natural Monument. In the Edo period the shrine was the official guardian mountain of the Mito domain.

A syncretic Shinto-Buddhist shrine on the outskirts of Hitachi, with a trail up Mount Oiwa that starts from the shrine grounds themselves.

ℹ️ Shrine visits 6:00–17:00, office 9:00–17:00; climbing the mountain allowed 6:00–15:00, forbidden at night. Free entry, open every day. By car about 10 minutes from the Hitachi Chūō interchange (Jōban Expressway); by train, a taxi ride of about 20 minutes from Hitachi Station.

🚉 若者センター前 · 10 min walk

Sources: weekendibaraki.com · oiwajinja.jp

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