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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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Some roots of the shrine’s ginkgo hang like breasts, reaching about 2 m. Local tradition treated them as “milk roots,” and people prayed to them for nursing mothers’ milk. The tree became a Shizuoka Prefectural Natural Monument in 1968.
Murayama’s yamabushi were not only mountain ascetics: 16th-century Imagawa records point to them monitoring fellow practitioners travelling toward rival-held Izu. Fujinomiya’s city history describes this as a scout-like intelligence role.
During climbing season, pilgrims at Murayama were protected by its 3 temple lodges. Even if a pilgrim owed money to their own master, the city’s history says they could not be pursued while staying in the village.
For the closing-of-the-mountain rite, village residents dressed as yamabushi, blew conch shells, chanted and burned goma. Afterward, neighbors scrambled for sacred paper streamers. When wartime disruption broke the tradition, residents learned its form again from Kyoto’s Shogoin.
Local junior-high students take part in water purification at Murayama. In 2022, they joined local yamabushi and practitioners visiting from Kyoto’s Shogoin for the mountain-opening ceremonies, including the goma fire ritual.
The shrine’s great cedar stands 47 m high, with a trunk circumference of 9.9 m at chest height. Shizuoka Prefecture designated this single giant tree a Natural Monument in 1956.
Pilgrims purified themselves in a stone-lined basin about 6.5 m by 4 m and 0.6 m deep. A stone Fudo Myōō stands at its water outlet; old maps and excavation findings suggest the water came from a pond called Ryūzu-no-ike, or “Dragon-Head Pond.”
A 16th-century painting of Mount Fuji shows pilgrims visiting Kohoji, purifying themselves at Murayama, then heading up the mountain. Many came from far west of Fuji, linked to the temple’s close ties with Kyoto’s Shogoin.
The Dainichido is the only surviving Edo-period building of the former Kohoji complex. It houses a 98.5 cm wooden Dainichi Buddha with an inscription dated May 28, 1259—more than 600 years older than the hall itself.
Murayama’s summer festival is held on August 16, the day old accounts say the ascetic leader returned from mountain practice. He had set out on July 22, stayed in the mountains and visited settlements on Fuji’s eastern and southern slopes before coming home.
