Sanage Shrine

Sanage Shrine covers a large section of 629-meter Mt. Sanage in Aichi Prefecture and appears in ninth-century records as the third-ranked shrine in Mikawa Province. The complex once included numerous Buddhist sub-temples and monasteries, but most were lost to fire in 1853 or demolished during the Meiji-era separation of Shinto and Buddhism. One surviving Buddhist hall, Yamanaka Kannondo, stands on a hillside just north of the main shrine. Visitors can dedicate wooden ema tablets decorated with a left-handed scythe, the symbol of Prince Ousu, the shrine's main deity and twin brother of the legendary warrior Yamato Takeru.