Heisenji Hakusan Shrine

Heisenji Hakusan Shrine in Katsuyama, Fukui, served as the Echizen pilgrimage base (Echizen-bamba) of the medieval Hakusan Shugendo cult, alongside the Kaga base at Shirayama Hime Shrine and the Mino base at Nagataki Hakusan Shrine. Its grounds are preserved as the National Historic Site "Hakusan Heisenji Former Precincts." The moss-covered stone paths and cedar avenues retain the layout of a medieval religious town. The main deity is Izanami no Kami, recorded in Kojiki (712 CE) as the mother goddess of the islands. In the medieval syncretic system she was identified with Hakusan Myori Gongen. Ame no Oshihomimi and Onamuchi are enshrined alongside, with Mount Hakusan (2,702 m) revered as the sacred mountain. Tradition credits Taicho with founding the site in 717 CE. At its peak in the Sengoku period the site held 48 shrines, 36 halls and some 8,000 warrior-monks. It was destroyed in the 1574 Ikko Ikki uprising and rebuilt on a modest scale in the early modern period.