Keta Wakamiya Shrine (気多若宮神社)

In the mountain city of Hida, locals don’t say they’re going to Keta Wakamiya Shrine — they say they’re visiting “Sugimoto-sama,” the Sacred Cedar Lord. The name comes from a 1,200-year-old cryptomeria that stands in the shrine precincts, so massive that seven adults linking hands can barely encircle its trunk. The tree predates the shrine buildings by centuries, and its presence determined the location of worship rather than being planted for it. In January, when snow accumulates on its branches, people come to stand beneath it in silence, believing the tree can hear prayers spoken nowhere else.

Keta Wakamiya was established in the early Heian period, around 824 CE, as a branch shrine of the powerful Keta Taisha in Noto Province (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture). The shrine was founded during the expansion of Hida Province’s administrative and religious infrastructure under Emperor Saga’s reign. According to local records, priests from Keta Taisha traveled inland to establish spiritual protection for the mountain routes connecting the Japan Sea coast to the interior. The current main hall, rebuilt in 1645 during the early Edo period, exemplifies the Hida architectural style that would later influence sukiya-zukuri residential design across Japan. The shrine survived multiple fires that consumed much of Takayama’s old quarter, protected, locals insist, by the sacred cedar.

Ōkuninushi no Mikoto is the primary deity enshrined here, worshipped in his capacity as protector of travelers and overseer of relationships between distant communities. In the mountainous isolation of Hida, where winter snows could cut off villages for months, Ōkuninushi’s role as the kami who “tied the land together” held particular significance. The shrine also venerates Nunakawa-hime, Ōkuninushi’s consort from Echigo Province, symbolizing the ancient trade and marriage networks that connected the mountains to the sea. Their presence together represents the joining of interior and coastal Japan, the very connection that Takayama depended upon for survival.

The sacred cedar’s origin story is told through an unusual legend of botanical resurrection. In the late 8th century, a Buddhist monk traveling through Hida fell ill and collapsed near a mountain spring. A young cedar tree growing beside the water suddenly bent its branches over him, shielding him from rain and snow for three days until hunters found him. The monk recovered and later became a famous calligrapher. Before leaving, he tied a prayer strip to the cedar’s lowest branch and promised the tree would grow to touch the sky. The Sugimoto cedar is said to be that same tree, and local belief holds that it will not die until all the old writing systems of Japan are forgotten — linking the tree’s life to the preservation of written language and cultural memory.

The main hall (honden) demonstrates the distinctive Hida carpentry tradition, built entirely without nails using complex interlocking joints that allow the structure to flex during earthquakes. The roof employs thick cypress bark shingles layered in the traditional style, and the hall’s pillars rest on foundation stones quarried from the nearby Miyagawa River. The worship hall (haiden) features unusually low eaves designed to shed heavy snow loads, and its interior ceiling preserves 17th-century paintings of dragons emerging from clouds — rare examples of shrine artwork from the early Edo period. The sacred cedar stands 28 meters tall with a trunk circumference of 7.5 meters. A shimenawa rope weighing over 100 kilograms encircles the tree at chest height, replaced annually during the New Year’s ceremony. Smaller cedars form a protective grove around the elder tree, some themselves over 300 years old.

• Sugimoto-sama Matsuri (Sacred Cedar Festival, April 14-15) — The spring festival features traditional Hida kagura performances and a unique ritual where sake is poured at the cedar’s base while priests recite prayers for the tree’s continued health. Children receive cedar-wood amulets carved by local craftsmen.
• Taisai (Grand Festival, September 15) — The autumn festival includes a procession of mikoshi through Takayama’s old merchant quarter, with stops at historically significant shops and homes to bestow blessings on trade relationships.
• Hatsumode (New Year’s Visit) — Uniquely, worshippers make two visits: one to the shrine buildings and a second to stand before the cedar tree, where they whisper wishes meant only for the tree to hear.

Late April brings the shrine’s spring festival when the cedar’s new growth appears as bright green tips against dark older foliage, and the surrounding mountain cherries bloom against lingering snow on the peaks. Alternatively, visit in January on a clear morning after heavy snowfall — the cedar’s branches hold perfect architecture of accumulated snow, and the shrine grounds are nearly empty. The tree creates its own microclimate; standing beneath it, you can feel the temperature difference from the surrounding air.