Enmado Hall

At the base of Mt. Tate in Toyama, this hall marks the traditional starting point of the Tateyama pilgrimage. Pilgrims would present themselves before the large fourteenth-century wooden statue of King Enma, chief judge of the afterlife, before crossing the nearby Nunobashi Bridge to symbolically enter the Buddhist netherworld and begin their ascent. Until the late nineteenth century, women were barred from the mountain itself but could participate in a separate blindfolded rite called the Nunobashi Kanjoe, crossing the bridge in white burial robes to pray for Buddhahood. This ceremony was revived in 1996 and now takes place once every three years. The hall is flanked by smaller statues of Onbasama, a mother deity, relocated here from a former separate hall.