Sanpuku Seido

Sanpuku Seidō, or Cliffside Shrine, is a remote and, until recently, relatively minor and obscure holding of the Phoenix Clan. Located on that clan’s northern border, where the Empire gives way to the rugged wilderness of the Great Wall of the North mountains, Sanpuku Seidō is the ancestral home of the Kaito, which had long been a small vassal family to the Isawa. When events transpired that led to the Kaito’s elevation to a full-fledged family in the Phoenix Clan, it made Sanpuku Seidō a much more important holding.

To reach Sanpuku Seidō, a pilgrim must travel north from Kyūden Isawa in the Phoenix lands, following a road that is, at first, busy and well traveled. However, it soon becomes increasingly narrow, rough, and poorly maintained as it climbs into the Great Wall of the North mountains. By the time the road begins to approach Sanpuku Seidō, it is skirting deep gorges and winding among silent stands of cypress and dark pines. After days of arduous travel, Sanpuku Seidō finally comes into sight. This first part of Sanpuku Seidō is a monastery, a cluster of buildings of grey stone with red-tiled roofs. Most pilgrims are awestruck by the precarious-looking nature of the place: the buildings are perched on the edge of a series of steep slopes and foreboding, nearly vertical cliffs. Streets and stairs lined with prayer wheels, blessed ropes, and fluttering paper tassels are carved from the mountain itself, while a maze of rickety bridges connects the upper levels of the buildings. A small square is built around a large pear tree adorned with orange lanterns. The residence and court of the Kaito daimyō is located along the square, as are an oratory and library, a dōjō and training facilities for the Kaito family, and ancillary buildings such as dormitories, a dining hall, kitchens, and food storage buildings. The latter are especially important, as little food is grown close to Sanpuku Seidō; most must be brought to the site and stored over the long winter months, when the area is often effectively isolated. The Kaito, being a hardy, mountain-dwelling, rural people with limited resources, do not put much effort into ornamentation, so the buildings are generally plain and rustic. A deep, forbidding ravine yawns between the monastery and the shrine proper. For most of the Kaito’s history, a rickety bridge of wood and twisted wisteria vines was the only way of crossing, but since the Kaito’s elevation in the Phoenix Clan, a far more sturdy (and less terrifying) stone bridge has been constructed. Wooden columns, painted a bright red, support the shrine’s roof of interlocking wooden beams and dark tile. Sacred ropes and paper streamers flutter in the mountain winds. A bell tower rises above the shrine, while a veranda surrounds it, offering a breathtaking view of the mountains. A small, cloistered garden is home to eight setsumatsusha auxiliary shrines, each dedicated to one of the Eight Great Fortunes. Inside the shrine proper, a small stage and paper shōji doors conceal the sacred artifacts of the Kaito. Entry to the inner sanctum beyond those doors is forbidden to anyone who is not a priest, although during periods of formal worship and during festivals, the holy items are revealed to all. The ancient well, within which the spirit of Ateru was imprisoned, is also located in this inner sanctum. Like the buildings of the monastery, the shrine has a rustic, slightly ramshackle feel. Since the events that led to their elevation, the Kaito have added a new wing to the shrine, one intended for the veneration of their ancestors among the Hyōketsu tribe of the Yobanjin.