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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Saitama
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At Setsubun, an attendant thrusts a large hinoki pestle-shaped symbol skyward, shouting “Gomottomo!” after the bean-throwing. The rite prays for good harvests, marital harmony and long life; children are a special focus.
Mitsumine’s founding legend says a wolf guided the hero Yamato Takeru to this mountain. Honored as a divine messenger ever since, wolves—not the usual lion-dogs—guard the shrine grounds.
On the 10th and 19th of each month, red-bean rice topped with sake is offered at two wolf shrines here: Chikamiya for guardians on the mountain, and Tōmiya for wolves lent to devotees across Japan.
At its height, Tokyo’s Honda kō had more than 1,000 members. A Nagano City Museum record documents a separate group that borrowed and returned wolf talismans annually for 134 years, from 1865 to 1999.
At the shrine’s Suwa Shrine festival, dancers perform a three-lion dance in kimono, hakama and white tabi, on mats rather than a stage. Nicknamed “tatami-room sasara,” it came from Okutama’s Nippara in the late Edo period and has 16 dance sections.
“Mitsumine” means “three peaks”: Myōhōgatake, Shiraiwa and Kumotori, whose distinctive outline can be seen from the shrine. The place-name began with these neighboring summits, not just the mountain where the shrine stands.
After the shrine sheltered defeated rebels in 1352, the Ashikaga seized its lands, and it declined for about 140 years. In 1503, the monk Gekkan Dōman began a 27-year journey to raise funds for its restoration.
The entrance’s rare Mitsu-torii joins three Myōjin-style gates: one large central gate flanked by two smaller ones. Instead of a single torii frame, visitors pass beneath a striking three-in-one design.
Two buildings here began with Buddhist duties: today’s Kunitokotachi Shrine was once a hall for Kannon and Fudō, while Yamato Takeru Shrine was formerly a hall for En no Gyōja, a founder of Shugendō.
The present main sanctuary was rebuilt in 1661, but its predecessor wasn’t discarded: it survives as the upper structure of the precinct’s Tōshōgū. Chichibu City identifies it as the only Muromachi-period building remaining at Mitsumine.
Built in 1853, Mitsumine’s hand-washing pavilion is a miniature sculpture gallery: vivid carvings cover all four sides. Chichibu City’s cultural record notes that the original carvings remain.
The shrine’s Ayame-bishi, or diamond iris, crest came from Kyoto’s Kazan’in court family. The link began when the shrine’s seventh head priest was adopted into that family; later mountain abbots were accorded the rank of a 100,000-koku lord.
A dragon-shaped mark in paving before the worship hall was noticed in 2012, the Year of the Dragon. Its date of formation is unknown, but the red-eyed outline shows more clearly when wet—a striking coincidence visitors still seek out.
The shrine grounds also host a government rain gauge. During flooding in September 2007, it recorded 537 mm of rain from the start of rainfall on September 5; these measurements help track flood, landslide and water-resource risks.
