After spending some time at Sunpu Castle, Momijiyama Garden and Nihondaira my final destination of the day was the Shizuoka Sengen Shrine.
Shizuoka Sengen Shrine (静岡浅間神社) is not too far from Sunpu Castle or the JR Shizuoka Station – all located in Shizuoka Prefecture (map).
In the photo above you see the entrance to the shrine. It’s the outer shrine gate, but you’ll have to walk along the small shopping street for a while to actually reach your destination.
Welcome to Shizuoka Sengen Shrine
You can’t miss it as you’ll walk right into another huge shrine gate.
The shrine grounds are quite spacious. The largest building you see in the map above is also the most important.
At the time of my visit cherry blossoms were in full bloom and there was also a spring festival going on.
You could smell the delicious food from everywhere! It’s always hard to resist.
There were a lot of people, but enough time to say your prayers.
As it was not only a spring festival, but also the main festival of the shrine (which is held every year on April 5th), there was a special traditional performance in front of the main building when I arrived.
Young boys were performing a traditional dance.
After their performance all the people involved were taking a group photo. It was a great chance for me to get a few nice shots as well.
And that’s how the final group photo looks – the main building of Shizuoka Sengen Shrine in the background.
The Shizuoka Sengen Shrine actually consists of three individual shrines: Kanbe Shrine (神部神社), Sengen Shrine (浅間神社), Otoshimioya Shrine (大歳御祖神社).
You can read more about the shrine’s history on Wikipedia.
Interesting is that shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu sponsored the rebuilding of the shrines after his retirement at nearby Sunpu Castle.
Apart from the three bigger shrines mentioned earlier, you’ll also find a few smaller shrine buildings
Additionally there’s a museum that contains a huge collection of items that belonged to the Tokugawa Shogunate (not pictured).
There’s also a huge pond and a nice park on the shrine grounds. So much to discover if you have enough time!
I was really lucky to be there just when they celebrated their annual festival, but I’m sure the shrine is worth a visit at any time of the year!
Some great pictures there as usual ZJ. Great timing as well to be there while the main festival of the shrine was taking place. I’d love to visit that Tokugawa museum there as well :)
I didn’t know about the festival. It was a coincidence, so I really was lucky with the timing, I guess! ^___^