Hayama Shrine: A Shinto Village Shrine in Kesennuma, Japan
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Japan
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Kamakura shogunate
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Sanctuary
On this page10 sections
History
Hayama Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Kesennuma, Japan, whose history is traditionally traced to 1217 and which serves as the village tutelary shrine of the Karakuwa area. Its principal deity is Ukanomitama no Mikoto, a Shinto kami associated with food, grain, and agricultural abundance. The shrine is classified as a village shrine and was formerly known by names including Hayama Great Gongen and Hayama Gongen. Local people also call it Hayama-sama or Gongen-sama.
Origins in the Kamakura period
The shrine’s founding tradition begins after the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura shogunate, and the decline of the Kajiwara, Wada, and Hatakeyama families. In 1217, a Buddhist cleric who had been the elder brother of Kajiwara Kagetoki and a provisional administrator of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu left Kamakura. He traveled toward Ezo and the Chishima Islands, reached Ishihama in present-day Karakuwa, and built a shrine beside his residence.
There he enshrined images of Yoritomo, Kagetoki, and Kajiwara Kagesue while praying for the repose of his family. The first sanctuary became known as Kajiwara Shrine. The tradition also connects the cleric with Hojo Masako, the wife of Yoritomo and a major political figure of the early Kamakura period. At Yoritomo’s direct request, he had prayed for the safe delivery of her child. The birth of their son, Minamoto no Yoriie, later associated the shrine with safe childbirth and the raising of children.
Two years after the cleric arrived, Yamato-no-kami Keiei came in search of him. Keiei was the son of Kajiwara Kagetoki’s third son, Kajiwara Kagemochi, and became the cleric’s adopted son. He entered the priesthood, and together they established Hayama Shrine on the summit of Mount Hayama. Direct descendants of the Kajiwara family have traditionally served as the shrine’s chief priests ever since. Its religious administrator, or betto, was Ryogon-in.
Relocation and local religious traditions
The shrine’s satomiya, or local sanctuary, originally stood at Ishihama. The Keicho Sanriku tsunami of 1611 swept it away. After a temporary move to the Aketo district, the sanctuary was transferred to its present location at Shukuura. The inner sanctuary, or okumiya, and its shrine buildings remain on Mount Hayama, while the satomiya and worship hall are at Shukuura.
Karakuwa preserves a form of Hayama belief considered unusual for a fishing community. It is also regarded as unusual for a shrine dedicated to a Hayama deity to function as a village ujigami, the tutelary kami of a local community. The shrine’s traditions therefore connect mountain worship, community identity, childbirth, and the maritime life of Karakuwa.
Festivals and responses to disaster
The March Ura Matsuri, also called Hama Matsuri, prays for fishermen’s safety and abundant catches. Its origins are associated with a ceremony marking the beginning of the former bonito-fishing season. The annual festival on September 19, known as Funa Matsuri, includes prayers for safe voyages and good catches, a maritime mikoshi procession, and salt purification. In earlier practice, the portable shrine descended only once every seven years.
The Shinko Festival and the Karakuwa Hayama Oyster Festival take place on the first Sunday of October. Their ceremonies include a portable-shrine procession and a boat festival, while oysters from Karakuwa are distributed during the oyster festival. Hamabarai, also called Ura Barai or Hama Barai, follows an abnormal death at sea and involves offerings on the shore. Salt purification and related shore rites are understood to remove ritual impurity, and fishing while that impurity remains on the shore is traditionally taboo in Karakuwa.
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami devastated the Shuku district. Hayama Shrine stood on high ground, but seawater reached the precinct and soiled its portable shrine. The customary Hamabarai rite, normally held about a week after a maritime death, was conducted on June 19, 2011, as a hundredth-day observance. The timing reflected harbor subsidence, the large number of victims, and the feelings of survivors. The September festival continued with a modified route and procedure.
A monument dedicated to recovery from the 2011 disaster was erected within the shrine precinct in September 2012. In 2015, Hayama Shrine became a pilgrimage point in the Tohoku Pilgrimage Project, which developed disaster-affected areas as pilgrimage destinations.
Remains
Sanctuaries and approach
Hayama Shrine is organized between two sacred locations. The worship hall and satomiya stand at Shukuura, while the okumiya and its associated buildings occupy the summit of Mount Hayama. Two giant cedar trees line the approach. Each rises more than 20 meters and is believed to be several hundred years old, linking the visible landscape with the shrine’s long history.
Cedar monuments
Former Upper Two Cedars
Two other cedars were formerly known as the Upper Two Cedars. Strong winds caused cracks in their trunks in 1999, and they were felled to prevent them from falling. A separate old cedar is traditionally said to have been cut down in 1868, the first year of the Meiji era.
Lower Two Cedars
The Lower Two Cedars stand near the shrine and are designated as prefectural natural monuments. In local usage they are called the Married Cedars.
Harbor and surrounding landscape
The shrine’s physical setting includes Shukuura Port, the remains of Karakuwa Castle across Shukuura Bay about 400 meters to the south, and Mount Hayama, where the inner sanctuary is located. These places form the immediate landscape associated with the shrine’s sanctuaries and its maritime ceremonies.
