Fuji · JP

Juoji Shrine

Juoji Shrine (Jūōji Jinja, 十王子神社) is a compact, handsomely carved Shinto shrine tucked into the Imaizumi neighbourhood of Fuji City, Shizuoka. Far from a mountain pilgrimage site, it is a quiet ward shrine that rewards the attentive visitor with some of the finest wooden sculpture in the lower Fuji foothills, all set around a single great ginkgo tree. Long venerated as the chief shrine, or sōja, of old Imaizumi village, the shrine enshrines the deity Jūōji Jinja (the 'Ten Princes') and is traditionally honored under the exalted title Shōi-ichii Jūōji Daimyōjin. Its main hall and worship hall were rebuilt in October 1940, carrying on an unbroken line of worship that a surviving bronze gong-mouth bell dates to at least 1658. What makes a stop here worthwhile is the craftsmanship: every beam, gable and bracket of the worship hall is wreathed in intricate openwork carving by the master sculptor Itakura Seihō, whose dragons, phoenix and lions are among the highlights of shrine art in this part of Shizuoka.