Suyama Sengen Shrine

Suyama Sengen Shrine stands in Suyama, Susono, Shizuoka. As the starting point of the Suyama trail on the southeastern slope of Mt. Fuji, it has received pilgrims and shugen practitioners.

Its main deity is Konohanasakuya-hime. According to shrine tradition, it began when Yamato Takeru worshipped the Fuji deity here during his eastern campaign. Besides the road north from Kisegawa on the Tōkaidō, the Suyama trail could also be reached from Yoshiwara post town by way of Imaizumi, Imamiya and Jūrigi.

The Suyama trail was also a route in the Fuji-mine shugyō, the practice of Murayama Shugen (the three lodges of Murayama), from the medieval period into the Edo period. According to the records, on the morning of the third day of the eighth month the yamabushi crossed eastward past Mt. Hōei, placed talismans at the Suyama-guchi Chūgū Sengen and at the Omuro Nyū Myōjin, and stayed the night. From the next day they went down the Suyama trail and performed rites for five days at the Asahi Kannon in Suyama village.

The Hōei eruption of 1707 (Hōei 4) wiped out the Suyama trail. It was restored once in 1740 (Genbun 5) but did not last, and with help from the Odawara domain it was finally restored in the sixth month of 1780 (An’ei 9). In 1796 (Kansei 8) all the villagers signed rules on matters such as the handling of the stone huts. According to Fuji no Rekishi, 7,398 people climbed by the Suyama trail in 1800 (Kansei 12), far more than on the Ōmiya and Murayama trails, which usually saw about a thousand a year. Under a shogunate ruling of 1779 (An’ei 8), everything above the eighth station had been set as the precinct of Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha (Ōmiya).

In 1883 (Meiji 16) people of Gotemba opened the Gotemba trail, and after the Tōkaidō railway line came through, climbers on the Suyama trail declined. When Mt. Fuji was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2013 (Heisei 25), Suyama Sengen Shrine and part of the trail (from about 1,200 to 2,000 metres above sea level) became part of its components.