Asama Shrine (Kai)

Asama Shrine is located in Isomiya, Ichinomiya-chō, Fuefuki City, Yamanashi Prefecture, serving as the principal shrine (ichinomiya) of Kai Province. It is dedicated to Konohanasakuya-Hime-no-Mikoto, the enshrined deity associated with Mount Fuji veneration. The shrine occupies a position in the Kai basin from which Mount Fuji is reverenced from the southeast. Though not included in the constituent assets of Mount Fuji as a World Cultural Heritage site (registered 2013), it is recognised as an important centre of Mount Fuji veneration.

The shrine sits on the left bank of the Kanagawa, a tributary of the Fuefuki River in the eastern Kai basin. Together with Sengen Daisai (the Grand Sengen Shrine) in Fujisendai, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Kitakuchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, it forms the axis of the Mount Fuji veneration sphere. The shrine represents the principal centre of Sengen worship on the Kai basin side.

The principal enshrined kami (shusaijin) is Konohanasakuya-Hime-no-Mikoto, recorded in the *Kojiki* (*Records of Ancient Matters*, 712 CE) as the goddess whom Ninigi-no-Mikoto encountered and took as his consort at Kasasa-no-Omae during the descent of the heavenly grandson. Her father is the deity Ōyamatsumi-no-Kami. From the Heian period onward, she was placed at the core of Mount Fuji veneration as its stabilising feminine deity, and the shrine participates in the ritual structure of Sengen veneration throughout Japan, with Sengen Daisai as its principal shrine. Subsidiary enshrined kami include Ōyamatsumi-no-Kami and Hikohihodemino-Mikoto.

According to shrine tradition, the shrine was founded in the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Suinin (traditionally dated 22 BCE) and relocated to its present location in 865 CE during the Jōgan era. The earliest documentary record appears in the *Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku* (Records of Three Reigns of Japan) entry for 864 CE, which notes a Mount Fuji eruption and records that Asama Myojin received the rank of Junior Fifth Rank Lower. The shrine is listed in the *Engishiki* (*Procedures of the Engi Era*, 927 CE) Register of Shrines as 'Asama Shrine, Yashiro County, Kai Province—major named deity', attaining the highest rank of named major shrine during the Heian period. In the medieval period it received patronage from the Takeda clan, and in the early modern period it was protected by the Tokugawa shogunate. It was designated National Shrine, Middle Rank (Kokuheichūsha) in 1871.

The principal festivals are the annual festival (reisai) on 15 April and the New Tasting festival (niinamesai) on 23 November. The annual festival features the offering of the Asama Shrine's own great sacred dance and music (taitai kagura), serving as a venue for the continuation of Mount Fuji veneration ritual.