Haguro-san Saikan

The Saikan is the pilgrims' lodging of Dewa Sanzan Shrine on Mt. Haguro, and it stands just past the top of the third slope on the stone-step approach. It began as Kezoin, one of the temple lodgings of the old Haguro shugendo order, and it is the only one of more than thirty such buildings left standing after the Meiji separation of Shinto and Buddhism. Tsuruoka named it a cultural property in 2005. The kitchen serves the plant-based temple cuisine of the mountain, built on wild vegetables and bamboo shoots gathered in the Dewa Sanzan foothills, and the shrine says this food was once set before Basho. This is a place of living worship, so dress for a shrine, keep voices low and follow the staff's lead.