Hakone Shrine was added to Your Favorites!
Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Kanagawa
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
One Soga brother grew up as a child acolyte at Hakone Gongen. Shrine tradition says its deputy abbot lent the brothers 2 famed swords for their 1193 revenge; Yoritomo later returned them.
At a monthly rite for Lake Ashi’s legendary nine-headed dragon guardian, rice, sake, dried squid and eggs are each divided into 9 offerings and presented to the lake—a ritual tied to the dragon’s taming.
On July 31, 3 boats carry an offering across Lake Ashi. At the torii, 2 turn back, leaving the chief priest alone in the sacred boat for the lake-center rite; fireworks follow.
Lake Ashi’s red Peace Torii was erected in 1952 to commemorate the peace treaty and Japan’s return to independence. In 1964, former prime minister Shigeru Yoshida’s calligraphy gave it the “Peace” plaque.
At the shrine’s Soga Shrine, the May 28 festival includes a “burning umbrella” rite. It recalls how the brothers are said to have lit umbrellas as torches on the night of their 1193 revenge.
Among the shrine’s treasures is a white porcelain vertical flute made at a Southern Song kiln in China. Tradition says Shizuka Gozen carried it as a keepsake of Yoshitsune, then Yoritomo dedicated it here.
Hakone Shrine’s treasures include all 12 designs in the ancient series called Kōchō jūnisen, from Wadō Kaichin, first minted in 708, to Kengen Taihō, issued in 958.
The shrine’s over-1,000-year-old Anzan cedar is linked to 2 future shoguns: shrine records say Yoritomo prayed for his wife Masako’s safe deliveries in 1182 and 1192, before Yoriie and Sanetomo were born.
Behind the main sanctuary is a pure grove of hime-shara, a Kanagawa Prefecture natural monument. It is described as the northernmost grove on Honshu; its white early-summer flowers fall like snow beneath the trees.
In 1232, the oath attached to the Kamakura shogunate’s Goseibai Shikimoku warrior code called on Izu-Hakone Gongen among the divine witnesses—a striking sign of the shrine’s standing with the samurai.
Hakone Shrine’s 1191 origin chronicle places early worship on Mt. Komagatake, with Mt. Kamiyama revered as sacred. In 757, the Buddhist ascetic Mangan established the lakeside sanctuary, then called Hakone Gongen.
The shrine’s “Kekera tree” was once timber from Lake Ashi’s bed; after a typhoon, it floated ashore. Shrine tradition identifies it with the tree used in the legend of tethering the lake’s nine-headed dragon.
