Atago Jinja, Shinto shrine on Mount Atago, Ukyō-ku, Japan
Atago Jinja stands on the 924 m summit of Mount Atago on the Kyoto–Tamba border. Its wooden offering hall has a steep gabled roof over a carved transom, lattice front and low railing hung with white zigzag paper streamers; stone steps streaked with moss lead up, flanked by red banners and a sake barrel. The present honden was rebuilt in 1836.
According to shrine tradition, the mountain deity was installed at Asahigamine in 703 by En no Gyōja and Taichō. In 781 Keishun and Wake no Kiyomaro revived it, and Shiroku-ji, a temple enshrining Atago Gongen, was built on the mountain. In the Meiji period the temple was abolished and the site renamed Atago Jinja; its main image, the Shōgun Jizō, was moved to Konzō-ji in Ōharano, Kyoto.
The shrine serves as the head of nine hundred Atago shrines across the country and draws visitors who come to honor the fire deity Atago Gongen. On July 31, pilgrims climb the stairs to the summit and take part in the Sen-nichi Tsuyasai festival, when one night here is said to equal a thousand visits.
Access is on foot only; the main Kiyotaki route from the trailhead takes about 2.5 hours over roughly 4.5 km with a climb of about 850 m. Rest shelters stand at the 3rd, 5th and 7th stations, but there are no teahouses, only a public phone and a drinks vending machine at the shrine office. Bring warm and rain gear, and a headlamp outside the Sen-nichi pilgrimage night, as the path is largely unlit.
The shrine's messenger is the boar: an iron torii gate at the site carries carvings of wild boars. The summit itself, at 924 metres, is closed to the general public; walkers instead reach a third-order triangulation point about 400 metres north, at 890.06 metres, for views toward Kyoto.
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