Murayama Sengen Shrine

Murayama Sengen Shrine was the heart of Murayama Shugendō, the ascetic tradition that shaped religious mountaineering on Fuji. In the mid-twelfth century, the monk Matsudai Shōnin — said to have climbed the mountain several hundred times — founded the temple Kōbō-ji here as his base of practice. Matsudai also raised the temple Dainichi-ji on the summit, opening Fuji as a sacred site of Dainichi Nyorai; this place stood at the very turning point at which Fuji changed from a mountain to be worshipped from afar into a mountain to be climbed.

In the medieval period Kōbō-ji was administered by the three powerful Murayama bō — Daikyōbō, Ikenishibō, and Tsujinobō — and it was here that the practice of ascetics guiding lay pilgrims (dōsha) to the summit took form. The Murayama-guchi trail, beginning at this spot and long known as the Omote-guchi or “front entrance,” developed as the ascetics’ route of practice.

The Dainichidō, the central hall of Kōbō-ji, enshrines Dainichi Nyorai, the Buddhist counterpart of Sengen Daibosatsu. Among its wooden seated images of Dainichi survives one bearing an inscription of 1259 (Shōka 3), testifying to the antiquity of devotion at this site. The mizugori basin where pilgrims purified themselves in cold spring water before the ascent also remains; in the Edo period, Fuji pilgrims from the Kansai region bathed here before setting out for the summit.

The Meiji decrees separating Shinto and Buddhism dealt a decisive blow to Murayama, where kami and buddhas had been venerated as one. Kōbō-ji was dismantled and the shugen organisation was lost, yet the very layout of the precinct — the Dainichidō and the Sengen shrine standing side by side — eloquently preserves the syncretic form of Fuji worship. In 2013 the shrine was inscribed as a component of the UNESCO World Heritage property Fujisan: Sacred Place and Source of Artistic Inspiration.