Mar 13, 2014 - 1 min read

The Beauty of Afuri Jinja Shrine

High, high up on Mt. Oyama in Kanagawa

By Larry Knipfing

Community writer

Guardian of the shrine gates

Entrance to the Afuri Shrine's lower shrine

Offering up a prayer of thanks

Writing out a prayer request, and then burning it, the smoke rising to reach the God of Shintoism

Writing out a prayer request in earnest

Purification font with dragon

In a cave under the shrine

Side view of Afuri Shrine

An interesting display

Statues at the rear of the shrine

Stairs that begin the tough one-hour climb to the main shrine at the top of Mt. Oyama

The shrine gate in autumn

A view of visitors coming to the shrine

Afuri Jina Shrine, located on Mt. Oyama in Kanagawa Prefecture was once a popular pilgrimage destination in Japan's Edo era. It shares the mountain with Oyama Temple, and other minor temples and shrines, a cable car, and many inns (whose specialty in tofu). The mountain is beautiful, and so this is a perfect place for a one-day trip, being just an hour or so away from Shinjuku or Yokohama. There are two Afuri Jinja shrines here actually; the larger sub-shrine at the top of the cable car, and then the main but much smaller shrine at the top of the mountain.

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Larry Knipfing

By Larry Knipfing

Community writer

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