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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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A merchant ship’s mast supports Iro Shrine. Local legend says a storm-tossed ship promised its mast to Iro Gongen; when the storm eased, the mast was cast ashore at the cliffside shrine. The mast is still visible beneath the building.
石室 is read “Iro” here, and the shrine fits into natural, honeycomb-like hollows in the cliff. These pockets, called tafoni, are thought to form as salt crystals grow in the rock and gradually break it apart.
In 2023, a local entrepreneur turned the shrine’s mast legend into a 32-centimetre “mast dog.” The hot dog’s long bread and sausages evoke the ship’s mast, and the creation was certified as a Minamiizu brand product.
At the April 3 Gongen Festival, local fishing boats circle the water below the shrine with colorful big-catch flags flying. The procession carries prayers for safe voyages and good catches out onto the sea the shrine has long watched over.
The shrine’s own leaflet preserves a cliffside miracle tale: during a perilous rebuilding, a master carpenter survived a fall, and an abalone shell bearing the image of the Eleven-Faced Kannon appeared. Villagers kept it as a sacred treasure.
The shrine’s own account says its exact beginnings are uncertain, but preserves a tradition of worship here from the 5th century. It says the ascetic En no Gyōja later enshrined an Eleven-Faced Kannon and established Iro Shrine in 701.
