Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha

Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha is the head shrine of the more than 1,300 Sengen shrines in Japan. According to tradition, its worship began in the reign of Emperor Suinin, when the deity was enshrined at the foot of the mountain. After a period at Yamamiya (today’s Yamamiya Sengen Shrine), the shrine is said to have been moved to its present site by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro in 806 (Daidō 1). Behind this lay Mt. Fuji’s violent volcanic activity, including the great eruption of 800 (Enryaku 19). It is thought that the shrine was moved beside the Wakutama Pond, where Fuji’s underground water wells up, in order to worship a deity of water who could calm the eruptions. The present buildings were begun by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1604 (Keichō 9) and completed in 1606. The main hall is a two-storey structure in a style called Sengen-zukuri, joined to the worship hall and the offering hall, and it is designated an Important Cultural Property.

According to legend, the enshrined deity, Konohanasakuya-hime, safely gave birth inside a burning hut, and so she came to be worshipped in Fuji faith as a deity of water who controls fire. In the medieval period she was also called Sengen Daibosatsu, a manifestation of Dainichi Nyorai, and she became a spiritual support for shugen practitioners.

The Wakutama Pond in the precinct is a nationally designated Special Natural Monument. Snowmelt from Mt. Fuji wells up here, clear, from between layers of lava, and Fuji-kō pilgrims from Edo performed water austerities in the pond to purify themselves before setting out for the summit. The Heian-period poet Taira no Kanemori wrote of its water as “jewels welling up from the bed of the Mitarashi River at Asama” (Kanemori-shū).

The yabusame rite of the Satsuki-e festival, held every year from 4 to 6 May, is said to originate in 1193 (Kenkyū 4), when Minamoto no Yoritomo dedicated it with prayers for success in arms during his great hunt at the foot of Mt. Fuji. In the medieval period the Fuji family of Grand Priests also held power as local warriors, and Sengen Taisha was closely tied to the warrior governments.

In 2013 the shrine was inscribed as a component of the World Heritage property Fujisan: Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration.