Komitake Shrine Satomiya

This is the village shrine (satomiya) of Komitake Shrine, located in Kamiyoshida, Fujiyoshida. It stands in Kamiyoshida, the oshi town where Fuji climbs once began, and is worshipped alongside the inner Komitake Shrine up at the fifth station of Mt. Fuji.

Its primary deity is Iwanaga-hime, the older sister of Konohanasakuya-hime, the deity of Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha. In the myths of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, both sisters married Ninigi, but Iwanaga-hime was sent back to her father on her own, and for that reason human life came to have a limit.

The fifth station grounds around the inner shrine expose an outcrop of the older Komitake volcano, which lies buried beneath modern Mt. Fuji (the New Fuji volcano). Komitake Shrine sits atop this volcano.

During the Edo period, the inner shrine was known as Komitake Sekison Daigongen. According to the Kai Kokushi, it began as a modest shrine to Tarōbō, originally located in Narusawa village at the mountain’s base before being moved halfway up the slope. It stayed quite small until around the Kyōhō era, after which it attracted a growing following and expanded into a grander complex. A great tengu and a small tengu are enshrined at this inner sanctuary.

According to Fuji no Rekishi, Komitake flourished from the Kyōhō era onward, drawing an increasing number of pilgrims away from the main climbing path. Dedications presented to the shrine competed in size: there is said to have been an axe with a blade two shaku eight sun long, weighing 108 kanme (about 400 kilograms) with a handle one jō two shaku (about 3.6 metres) long, as well as a sword six shaku five sun (about two metres) long. Along the Yoshida trail, a side path branched off toward Komitake at the 5.5th station. On the descent, climbers ran down through the sand from the eighth station to the sunaharai at the 5.5th station, where the left fork led to Komitake and the right fork led to the Chūgū.

Early in the Edo period, an alternative route ran from Funatsu via the Tainai lava caves up to Komitake and the fifth station. As traffic on the Yoshida trail expanded, however, most pilgrims chose to detour from Funatsu over to the Yoshida trail instead. In 1810 (Bunka 7), the oshi of Yoshida and Kawaguchi clashed over the path from Funatsu to Komitake, eventually settling the dispute with an exchanged written agreement.

Today, the terminus of the Fuji Subaru Line, commonly known as the Mt. Fuji fifth station, sits right at Komitake. Before the road opened in 1964 (Shōwa 39), the only route to the inner shrine was on foot. According to a story handed down as the experience of the previous chief priest, before the opening of the Subaru Line, the priest would carry the an, a ceremonial offering stand used during festivals, down toward the Yoshida trail to hand out talismans to pilgrims making the ascent.

On the grounds of the village shrine, an unadorned wooden torii stands among the trees.