Hakusan-jinja Shrine stands at the foot of Mount Joyama upon which Hakusan-jo Castle was built, and looks to Mount Hakusan in Kaga Province as its sacred mountain.
Mount Hakusan straddles Hakusan City in Ishikawa Prefecture and Shirakawa-mura Village in Gifu Prefecture, and rises to a height of 2,702 meters above sea level. It is one of “Japan’s Three Sacred Mountains” along with Mount Fuji and Mount Tateyama. Mount Hakusan asceticism was established in the early Heian Period (794–1185), and Mount Hakusan worship thereafter spread throughout the country, reaching Kai Province in the Middle Ages, so it is said.
Records remain at Hakusan-jinja Shrine which indicate that Shinra Saburo Yoshimitsu, founder of the Kai Genji Clan, built a Kagura hall (hall for performing Kagura dances) and offered a Mikoshi palanquin to the shrine during the Enkyu Years (1069–1074).