納め太刀 i.e. sword-offering --these were big wooden swords that pilgrims brought and dedicated to Afuri Jinja in the Edo Period. The custom is said to have started with Minamoto no Yoritomo (源頼朝) the first Kamakura shogun who dedicated to the shrine his (actual) sword when he defeated the house of Taira (平) in the Genpei War (源平合戦, 1180-1185). Often the pilgrims where the tobi (鳶) or hikeshi (火消し), the scaffold construction workers and firefighters of Edo, hence the look of the statue which, incidentally, is from 2016.
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore 2" set on Flickr).
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