Climbing up 270 steep steps, we see the stately main building. First, let’s cleanse our hands and mouths with cold water from the Chōzuya fountain, then proceed to pray to the enshrined deity.
This shrine is carved with numerous sacred beasts like phoenixes and qilin, a legendary chimerical creature. It was built at the end of the Edo period and remained the oldest of the five sub-shrines. It's somewhat similar to Zenkō-ji as it used to be a temple. In the old days, Shinto gods and Buddha mixed together, and both were objects of worship. Togakushi Shrine was a temple called “Kenkō-ji", and Hōkō-sha was a temple called Hōkō-in.
There is one legend behind the establishment of Hōkō-sha. Two hundred years after Oku-sha was built on Mt. Togakushi, a shining object suddenly appeared here. When people gathered to take a look, they found a mirror carved with the image of god. People wondered why such a thing would appear here when a girl suddenly began convulsing and speaking in a heavy tone.
"I am a messenger of the Buddha. It is against the Buddha's wishes to fence off this land. Build a temple here and worship me."
At that time, women were banned from entering the area near Oku-sha. The messenger was trying to convey the Buddha’s displeasure at that by borrowing the girl's body. A villager, dumbfounded by what he witnessed, hesitantly asked,
"If you really are a messenger of Buddha, transfer yourself into a sleeve of a robe this monk is wearing."
Then, something jumped on the sleeve. When everyone turned around to see what it was, they found a statue of Buddha. After that, people immediately built a temple and began to worship Buddha.
The current deities of Hōkō-sha are the gods that appear in the legend of Amano-Iwato. In today’s Togakushi, this legend of Amano-Iwato has become the center of worship. Let's move on to learn the story.
