Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha

Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha, on the southern side of Mount Fuji in the city of Fujinomiya, is the most important of all the shrines dedicated to Japan's sacred mountain. It is the head shrine of the roughly 1,300 Sengen shrines scattered across the country, and it enshrines Konohanasakuya-hime, the blossom princess who is the deity of Mount Fuji. As part of the wider Fujisan cultural landscape, it is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it stands at the very centre of the mountain's long history of worship.

The shrine's origins reach deep into antiquity. Tradition holds that Fuji worship was formalised here to calm the volcano's eruptions, and over the centuries the shrine grew into the spiritual authority over the entire mountain. Its main hall, rebuilt in the early 17th century under the patronage of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, is a distinctive two-storey structure of considerable elegance and is designated an Important Cultural Property. The spacious grounds, with their great torii, avenues and cherry trees, convey the shrine's exceptional status and reward unhurried exploration.

One of the shrine's most remarkable features is the Wakutama Pond, a sacred spring within the precincts fed by the snowmelt of Mount Fuji, filtered slowly through the mountain's lava layers to emerge crystal clear and icy cold. Designated a special natural monument, the pond was traditionally used by pilgrims for ritual purification before their ascent, and it beautifully embodies the connection between the mountain, its water and the faith centred here. Watching the pure water well up from the ground is a quietly moving experience.

Equally striking is the fact that the shrine owns the summit of Mount Fuji itself, everything above the eighth station being its sacred precinct, complete with a summit shrine for climbers who reach the top. This gives Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha a claim over the mountain unlike any other shrine, and underlines its role as the ultimate guardian of Fuji. Historically it was the great southern gateway for pilgrims climbing the mountain, just as the Sengen shrines of the north served climbers from the Fuji Five Lakes side.

The shrine lies a little apart from the Five Lakes, on the south side of the mountain, but it is easily reached: it is a 10-minute walk from Fujinomiya Station on the JR Minobu Line. In early April the grounds are famous for their cherry blossom, which drapes the historic buildings and the sacred pond in pink and makes spring the most beautiful time to visit. Admission is free and the grounds are open at all hours.

Allow around 50 minutes to explore the shrine, its cultural-property hall and the sacred spring pond. For travellers willing to venture to the southern flank of Mount Fuji, Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha offers something no other site can: the supreme shrine of the whole Fuji faith, guardian of the mountain from its base to its very summit, and a UNESCO-listed treasure at the heart of Japan's reverence for its greatest peak.