Togakushi Jinja (Chūsha)

photo by 663highland · CC BY 2.5

photo by AT@wiki · CC BY-SA 2.0

The avenue to the shrine at the top runs between cryptomerias more than 400 years old.

Of the five Togakushi shrines, the Chūsha stands in the centre, seat of the deity of wisdom Ame-no-Yagokoro-Omoikane; beside it grows a centuries-old sacred tree (goshinboku), visited by those who stop here before going on to the other shrines on the mountain.

One of the five Togakushi shrines (Okusha, Chūsha, Hōkōsha, Kuzuryūsha, Hinomikosha), at an altitude of 1,200 metres in the north of Nagano. According to legend, the whole mountain is the rock that Ame-no-Tajikarao hurled away when he opened the heavenly cave where the sun goddess Amaterasu had hidden. Until 1868 worship here fused esoteric Buddhism and Shinto (shugendō): the ascetic syncretism of Buddhism and mountain worship made Togakushi one of the historic centres of shugendō, until the forced separation of the two religions imposed on it the Shinto identity it has today.

ℹ️ The shrine grounds are always open; the amulet office is open 9:00–17:00 (until 16:00 in winter). Togakushi is also a soba-producing area, among the most renowned in Japan.

🚉 戸隠中社 · 2 min walk

Sources: togakushi-jinja.jp

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