Hirashio Kumano Shrine is a historic Shinto shrine located in Sagae City, Yamagata Prefecture. The shrine’s principal deities are Izanami-no-Mikoto, Kushikeno-no-Mikoto, Hayatamao-no-Mikoto, and Kotosakao-no-Mikoto, along with ten other deities enshrined together.
The shrine is traditionally said to have been founded in 721, when the Buddhist monk Gyōki invited the deities of the three Kumano shrines to this area. Numerous cultural properties and archaeological finds remain on the grounds, reflecting the site’s long history as a place of local worship.
Hirashio Bugaku is a traditional performing art said to have originated during the Tenpyō era of the Nara period (710–794). Influenced by court dances from Kyoto, it developed locally and has been passed down for more than 1,000 years as a traditional dance performed by local farmers.
During the shrine’s annual festival, dancers dressed in colorful traditional costumes perform elegant dances to the sounds of flutes and drums. A total of ten dances are presented, forming an important local tradition in which prayers are offered for an abundant harvest and the safety of the community. The Tahei-raku dance is performed only in leap years according to the traditional Japanese lunar calendar.
Hirashio Kumano Shrine is traditionally believed to have been established in 721 when Gyōki invited the deities of the three Kumano shrines to the area. His distinguished disciple Shōkaku is said to have assisted as the temple administrator.
During the Former Nine Years’ War (1051–1063), the warriors Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and Minamoto no Yoshiie are said to have prayed at the shrine for victory. In 1061, Yoriyoshi and Yoshiie reportedly donated farmland, forests, and two mirrors to the shrine. Records also indicate that the shrine was rebuilt in 1086.
During the Heian period (794–1185), a sutra mound was constructed on the shrine grounds. A stone bell-shaped artifact with an octagonal column design discovered there is believed to date from around 1142–1143.
In 1189, the Ōe clan, also known as the Sagae clan, became the local land stewards of the Sagae Estate and granted the shrine its own territory. The shrine was later protected by the Nagasaki-Nakayama clan, retainers of the Sagae branch of the Ōe family.
The Nakayama clan is said to have designated Hirashio Kumano Shrine as a place for prayers and established branch shrines in various locations. During the Meiō era (1492–1501), the associated deities were consolidated at the shrine’s present location.
During the Edo period (1603–1868), the shrine was granted more than 149 koku of officially recognized domain land by the shogunate.
Following the Meiji government’s policy of separating Buddhism and Shinto in the late 19th century, the site became formally recognized as a Shinto shrine, while Hirashioji Temple was established to serve the local community’s Buddhist funeral needs.
During the movement to suppress Buddhism and remove Buddhist objects from shrines, local people are said to have hidden the precious Ten Kings statues by burying them in the mountainside behind the shrine. The statues were later excavated and returned to worship. From 2006, they underwent restoration over a three-year period at the Cultural Properties Conservation Center of the Kyoto National Museum before being returned in 2008.
Hirashioji Temple was established in 1655 when an earlier Nyohō-dō hall was converted into a temple and given the name Kumakenzan Hirashioji. During the period of the Sagae clan, Hino Shikibu served as its administrator. Later, Yūjitsu of the Date clan became administrator, and the temple became affiliated with Hōdōji Temple of the Shingon school of Buddhism.
After the Meiji-era separation of Buddhism and Shinto, Koremitsu of Hirashioji became a Shinto priest. At the request of local residents, his disciple Enmyō is said to have taken over the temple and continued its Buddhist tradition.
The present main hall was rebuilt in 1796. Its entrance canopy and decorative kibana brackets feature intricate wood carvings that demonstrate the craftsmanship of the period.
The temple belongs to the Chizan School of Shingon Buddhism. Its principal image is a seated statue of Amida Buddha, accompanied by standing statues of Kannon Bodhisattva and Seishi Bodhisattva.
The Amida Triad, believed to have been created between the late Kamakura period and the Muromachi period, has been designated a Yamagata Prefecture Cultural Property.
Hirashio Kumano Shrine preserves two wooden seated statues traditionally identified as the Ten Kings. They are believed to date from the mid-12th century and are considered valuable examples of the early development of Ten Kings worship in Japan.
The statue identified as King Enma has a seated height of 133.5 cm and a total height of 166.3 cm. The other statue, identified as either Taizan Fukun or God of the Five Paths, has a seated height of 121.8 cm and a total height of 154.0 cm.
The first sutra mound yielded a variety of important artifacts, including an octagonal stone bell-shaped object, three small swords, a stone ritual mirror, a Sue ware container for a sutra cylinder, and a stone plate dating from the Jōmon period.
These archaeological discoveries provide valuable evidence of the site’s long-standing importance as a place of religious worship.
The colophons of the Daihannya Sutra preserved at the shrine contain the names of people from Hirashio and Fushikuma, as well as people from fishing villages in Oshika District, Miyagi Prefecture, a monk from Baikeiji Temple in Ishinomaki, and people from Kanayama in Mogami District.
These records offer valuable insight into the connections and exchanges that once extended across a wide area of northern Japan.
The Osaihōjin Festival is a traditional ritual held in late February, corresponding to the 15th day of the first month in the traditional Japanese lunar calendar. It is an event intended to ward off misfortune and invite good fortune.
Osaihōjin is regarded as a deity protecting the village and is considered a type of Dosojin, a traditional Japanese roadside deity associated with protection and boundaries.
As part of the festival, the local men carve a phallic-shaped sacred object from a pine tree. After it is ritually consecrated, the object is offered to the deity. It is then thrown toward the worshippers, and those who manage to catch it are traditionally believed to receive good fortune.
The festival has been passed down as a traditional event associated with wishes for fertility, marriage, and the blessing of children.
Morning: The men of the local religious community enter Sutrazuka Mountain, cut down a pine tree, and carve the sacred object.
Evening: Men dressed in white ceremonial clothing carry the sacred object to Hirashio Kumano Shrine, where prayers and rituals are performed.
Night: The Shinto priest throws the sacred object toward the approach to the shrine while calling out, and the assembled worshippers compete to catch it.
Several hundred people gather for the event, and the energetic scramble for the sacred object is one of the festival’s most memorable features.
To make it easier for visitors to reach the shrine, a perpetual lantern was once kept lit throughout the night. Lighting and maintaining the lantern was an important responsibility of the religious community of Hirashio, with different members taking turns each year.
The present lantern was erected in 1804. The last person recorded as being responsible for lighting it was Umemoto-bō in 1941. The lantern is now illuminated by electric light, bringing an end to the long tradition of lighting it by the local religious community.
A pond beside the approach to the shrine was once used for rainmaking rituals dedicated to a dragon deity.
There is also a theory that the two wooden Ten Kings statues may originally have been carved from a sacred tree that once stood within the shrine grounds.
The approximately 600-meter approach from the Osaihōjin site through the torii gate to the main shrine buildings is almost perfectly straight. This suggests that the approach was deliberately planned and laid out.
Hirashio Kumano Shrine is a remarkable cultural site where a long history of religious devotion and distinctive local traditions continue to be preserved. The Hirashio Bugaku dances and Osaihōjin Festival, together with the shrine’s cultural properties, archaeological discoveries, and connections with Hirashioji Temple, reveal the depth of the region’s religious and cultural heritage.
When visiting Sagae City, take time to look beyond the shrine buildings themselves and discover the area’s traditional performing arts, festivals, cultural properties, and historic landscape. Together, they offer a fascinating glimpse into the traditions that have been passed down in this part of Yamagata for centuries.