Hayama Shrine, Shinto shrine in Japan

Hayama Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Karakuwa district of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. It has two parts: a lower shrine with a worship hall in the Shukuura area and an upper shrine atop Mount Hayama in the Shuku area. Two cedar trees over 20 meters tall stand along the approach, and the shrine is known locally as "Hayama-sama" or "Gongen-sama."

In 1217 Kajiwara Kagemitsu (Sengyōbō Ryōsen), a former temporary deputy of Tsurugaoka Hachimangū, left Kamakura and reached Ishihama in present-day Karakuwa, where he built a small shrine. Two years later his adopted son Kageei, son of Kajiwara Kageshige, joined him; together they founded Hayama Shrine on the summit of Mount Hayama. The Kajiwara lineage has served as its priests since. The original satomiya at Ishihama was washed away by the 1611 Keichō Sanriku tsunami and later moved to Shukura.

Fishermen stop here before heading out to sea, leaving small offerings at the altar as a way to ask for safe passage. Families also come to seek blessings for children, making the shrine a place used across different stages of life.

The shrine is within walking distance of central Kesennuma, and parking is available nearby for those arriving by car. It can be visited year-round, though daytime visits allow you to take in the wooden structures and stone details more clearly.

The tsunami did not spare the shrine: seawater reached the hilltop precinct and soiled the portable mikoshi. The customary purification rite for sea deaths, normally held about a week after a drowning, was postponed to 19 June 2011 as a hundred-day observance, and the September festival was rerouted.