Akakura Mountain Shrine Architecture

Start of Mountain Path

After worshippers undertaking shugyo (ascetic discipline) cross the bridge over the Akakura river, they begin to climb the path up the mountain. For the first several hundred meters, stone steps have been placed on the path, as seen in this image.

At a small cluster of shrines (built by spirit mediums who are not affiliated with Akakura Mountain Shrine) the path forks. The left path goes up to the left ridge of the mountain, past a line of thirty-three Kannonsama statues, to Ubaishi boulder and the Shokannonsama statue near the summit The main path parallels the Akakura river up to the Waterfall of Fudo, within the Akakura Gorge.

Read an ethnographic account of climbing the mountain

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