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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Tokyo
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At the summit shrine, wolves—called oinu-sama, “honored dogs”—were revered as guardians. A pair of wolf statues was dedicated in 1759, and devotees received talismans to ward off crop-raiding animals and theft.
Odake Shrine’s origin is traditionally dated to 747: a local account says its sacred image of Zao Gongen was brought from Yoshino, home of the famous mountain sanctuary in today’s Nara Prefecture.
The summit sanctuary changed with Japan’s religious reforms: once known as Ōdake Kinpusan Zao Gongen, it took the name Ōdake Shrine in 1870. Five local shrines were later merged into it in 1907–08.
The mountain shrine’s amulets had a surprisingly long reach: Hinohara’s tourism history says they were distributed as far as Mitaka through the early Shōwa years, linked to people who left to cultivate Musashino.
At Odake Shrine’s Shirakura foothill shrine, an annual village festival becomes a long procession: a children’s mikoshi leads through 3 hamlets, then 4 white-clad bearers carry the main portable shrine home around 8 p.m.
Paths from several North Akikawa villages once joined on 馬頭刈尾根 (Mazukari Ridge), forming pilgrimage approaches to Odake Shrine. It was a different way up from today’s familiar route over from Mount Mitake.
Odake has another name: Nabekaburi-yama, or “Pot-Crown Mountain.” Its summit is said to resemble a flat cooking pot, with a rim rising around the edge.
Around mid-May, a few wild white shiro-yashio azaleas bloom just below Odake’s south summit. Local naturalists note that the trees grow tall enough to make photographing their flowers surprisingly tricky.
On the 千足 approach to Odake, Tengu Falls takes its name from a local tale: a hermit living nearby was mistaken for a tengu. In bright sun, the 20-meter cascade can sometimes make a rainbow.
On the Odake trail, Ayataki means something like “Pattern-Weave Falls”: its stream curves over the rock like hanging cloth. Its foamy lower water also earned it a second name, Awataki (“Foam Falls”).
Village tradition adds a human story to the Odake trail: after Hinohara Castle fell, its lord’s wife is said to have built a hermitage beside Ayataki, enshrined Kannon, and spent her later years in prayer.
A local tale explains the nearby 千足 name with a battlefield mishap: 1,000 straw sandals supposedly fell from the sky, but the slippery cogon-grass footwear sent soldiers tumbling—and they lost the battle.
