The 10 Best Sacred & Religious Sites in Katsuyama, Chubu

Reviewed By Hoegaarden987 - Brossard, Canada

Hakusan (literally, the white mountain in Japanese) is a ~2700 m tall mountain extending between Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui and Gifu prefectures. It has been a sacred mountain for many in the area, leading to the many Hakusan Shrines in the region and around Japan that believe the mountain to house a god. The Heisenji-Hakusan Shrine is one such shrine located near Katsuyama city in the Fukui prefecture. The Shrine has beautiful lawns of moss throughout its campus, and is well known along with the famous Saiho-ji in Kyoto for its moss gardens. It was raining that day, and the rain made the moss lawn even more beautiful. There were several individual visitors, and we saw two or three groups, but the shrine itself was very quiet. We first strolled through the moss lawns and took the main road to the main hall and gave our prayers. There are two other smaller halls next to the main hall, and the three halls signify the three peaks of Hakusan. We then took another road up the hill to the Sannnomiya, another hall higher up in the mountain. There were moss lawns along the road as well, and the air was very refreshing. All three of us were completely awed by the beauty and the sacred environment. To get to the shrine, we took a local train from Fukui station to Katsuyama station. There are local buses to the shrine, but unfortunately, the wait was more than an hour after our arrival at Katsuyama that day. As such, we took a taxi from the Katsuyama station, which cost us about 1800 yen. On the way back, we took the bus back to Katsuyama station, which was a mini-van, and the cost was 200 yen per person. It turned out that this Shrine was opened by Taichou in 717, and so it was exactly 1300 years from its opening. Nevertheless, there were very few signs that marked this anniversary, and the area was very calm, just like the shrine itself.