Sangoku Daiichisan Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine Audio Guide

Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine

   Welcome to Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine, known in Japanese as 新倉富士浅間神社. It stands in Fujiyoshida, in Yamanashi Prefecture, on the middle slope of Mount Arakura, just north of Shimoyoshida Station on the Fujikyu line. Picture green forest with a red torii gate set against it, and a long stairway climbing up through the trees. This is a shrine with a very long memory. It is the guardian shrine of its local township, and it has watched Mount Fuji through eruptions, wars and centuries of changing seasons. Its grounds are also a public space that people know as Arakurayama Sengen Park, so you may share the stairs with pilgrims and photographers alike. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the shrine began, how Mount Fuji's anger shaped its story, a warlord's prayer before battle, and the practical side of visiting. Let's start climbing.

2. 02

   Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine: Foundation and the Title Given by an Emperor

   The shrine's own account says it was founded on the ninth of September, in the third year of the Keiun era, in the early eighth century, during the reign of Emperor Monmu. The place was then called Arakura Township, in Yatsushiro County of Kai Province. The shrine was meant to enshrine the guardian deity of the Fuji Kitaguchi township, which is today's Fujiyoshida. The next great chapter comes in the year 807. Mount Fuji erupted violently, and on the twenty-second of August an imperial envoy came from the court to perform a ceremony to calm the volcano and keep the land safe. According to the shrine's tradition, Emperor Heizei then bestowed on this shrine the title Sangoku Daiichi San, meaning The First Mountain of the Three Provinces. Heizei also presented a gold offering wand, a ceremonial mask for the envoy, and an inscribed tablet in his own hand. That tablet is the one now displayed on the great torii. The title is a grand phrase. The three countries meant India, China and Japan, so it was a way of calling Fuji the greatest mountain in the known world. The envoy's mask is now kept in the Fujiyoshida City Museum.

3. 03

   Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine: Lava, Prayer and a Torii Like a Picture Frame

   The shrine sits on a high terrace right beside the Kenmaruo lava flow. That lava poured out in the great Jogan eruption of 864, the largest eruption of ancient times. Its flows were so vast that they dammed a lake called Se no Umi and split it into what we now know as Lake Saiko and Lake Shojiko. People say that, hoping to soothe Fuji's anger, they stood on this platform of land jutting out into the lava and offered prayers to the mountain. The view from the front of the main hall is thought to be a remnant of that act of devotion. Look through the torii and Mount Fuji appears as though the gate were a picture frame around it. There is a quieter story here too. When the present main hall was built, the old one was moved to the left and became a small auxiliary shrine named Arakahama Shrine. Deities of silkworms and looms are enshrined there, and the weavers and silk farmers of the Arakura district once came to pray to them. Today the shrine is also invoked for protection from misfortune, harmony at home, safe childbirth and the raising of children.

4. 04

   Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine: Warlords, Pagoda and Cherry Blossoms

   In the age of warring states, this hillside became a military camp. Takeda Nobutora, father of the famous Takeda Shingen, set up camp on Mount Arakura while fighting the Hojo clan. He prayed for victory at this shrine, won, and offered a sword in gratitude. The buildings you meet as you climb are worth noticing. After the stairs, the water pavilion for purification is on your left and the kagura hall for sacred dance is on your right. The main hall is in the flowing-roof style, called nagare-zukuri, and the worship hall is a broad building three bays by seven bays. Higher on the hill stands the five-story pagoda called Chureito, a memorial to those who died in war. It has become the symbol of the area and is celebrated as having one of the finest views of Mount Fuji in Japan. In spring about 300 cherry trees bloom here. A deck at the top of a stairway of 398 steps looks out over the whole town of Fujiyoshida.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine

   Look at the red of the torii against the forest, and how the old and new main halls relate to each other. Pause where Mount Fuji sits inside the gate, and try to imagine pilgrims and soldiers standing on this same ledge of land. If you stay curious, you can also look into the imperial mask displayed in the city museum, or into the Fujiyoshida trails that once led pilgrims up the mountain. The shrine has more to say each time you look.