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Origin[]
Sengen is the Shinto Goddess of Fujiyama, the highest mountain in Japan, considered the most holy. Once a very active volcano, Fujiyama covered Tokyo (some seventy miles away) with six inches of ash in the eruption of 1707. Its isolation and the perfection of the shape of its cone has made it a celebrated subject of poetry and art. Fujiyama (whose name means "Never Dying Mountain") probably derives its name from the old Ainu fire Goddess Fuchi. In the summer great numbers of pilgrims ascend to the summit, where Sengen has Her temple, and which even at that time of year is usually snow-covered. Sengen is depicted as a girl all in white to Whom camellias are sacred. She is said to live within a luminous cloud in the crater of Fujiyama, and She presides over a healing stream on the south side of the mountain. Sengen was wedded to Ninigi, the grandson of Amaterasu, the sun Goddess. Mount Fuji also has solar associations, and during the summer pilgrimage people pay honor to the rising sun. By Ninigi Sengen had three fiery sons—Po-deri-no-mikoto ("Fire-shine"), Po-suseri-no-mikoto ("Fire-full"), and Po-wori-no-mikoto ("Fire-fade"), Whom She gave birth to in a burning building. Po-wori-no-mikoto was in His turn the grandfather of the first Emperor of Japan, whose descendants preside over Japan to this day. Sengen in a reading indicates powerful fires of strength and spirit beneath a calm and beautiful exterior. Alternate names: Sengen-sama, Konohana-Sakuya-hima ("Princess Who is Radiant as the Blossoming Trees"), Konohana