Introduction to Furumine-jinjya shrine
It is a sacred place of mountain worship that was established approximately 1,300 years ago. The site is located at an altitude of about 700 meters and covers a vast area of 500 hectares.
It is famous for its Tengu faith. Tengu is a legendary Japanese creature that lives in the mountains, has a long nose, and uses mysterious magic.
Shukubo (shrine stay)
The guest rooms at the shukubo are located in a building connected to the main hall. There are a variety of rooms, from large ones to private ones, and it is so large that it is hard to believe it is located in the mountains.
I stayed as part of a group, and was shown to a spacious Japanese-style room consisting of two adjacent 14-tatami rooms. There were towels, toothbrushes, and yukatas, but no bath towels.
There are Tengu masks and statues all over the building. The Tengu masks, which was over 1.5 meters tall, was impressive.
Dinner
We had dinner in the 216-tatami mat room. There were no other guests there so it was very spacious.
The meal is called NAORAI, which means that we are receiving hand-me-downs from the KAMI (Divine being). The menu included rice, kenchinjiru soup, tempura, yuba, konjac, sweetfish, edamame (green soy beans), ganmodoki (deep-fried tofu mixed with thinly sliced vegetables), and Wheat gulten bread.
We were allowed to have as much rice and kenchinjiru soup as we wanted. It also came with alcohol.
Morning Prayer
The next morning, prayers were held at the main hall at 7am. To the sound of drums, the doors open to reveal the shrine and prayers are recited. Then Gagaku (the court music of ancient Japan) was played and shrine maidens performed a dance as an offering.
The names of the guests were read out and at the end, a branch from a sacred tree was offered.
