Hinomisaki Shrine
The Hinomisaki Shrine ( Japanese. 日 御 碕 神社 , Hi-no-misaki-jinja ) is a Shinto shrine in the city of Izumo (formerly Taisha-chō in Hikawa-gun) of Shimane Prefecture , Japan . The current structure was built in 1664 on the orders of the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu , the work on it took ten years. According to legend, the original shrine is said to have been founded by Amenofuyukinu, a mythical descendant of Susanoo in the fifth generation.
The shrine is located right on the coast of the Sea of Japan near the Hinomisaki Lighthouse ( Hinomisaki Todai , the largest tallest stone lighthouse in Japan). Also not far is the small and sacred island of Fumi-shima, which can only be entered by the seagulls and the high priest of the shrine. On the island there is still a torii made of white granite, which indicates that Amaterasu was once encased here before she was transferred to the shrine on the mainland.
The shrine's main kami is Susanoo, and it is said that his sister Amaterasu became a guest kami about a thousand years ago . Lafcadio Hearn , who visited the shrine in 1891 and reported on it in a chapter of his book Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan , attributed the splendid architectural style of the shrines to a connection to Ryōbu-Shintō, a strongly Buddhist form of Shintō (see Shinbutsu-Shūgō ).
Armor in Yoroi style with white lace trimmings from the Kamakura period (one of the national treasures of Japan ) is on loan from the shrine in the Tokyo National Museum .
Web links
- Mogi Sakae: "Okao shinji (an ancient ceremony of the Hinomisaki shrine)" . In: Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugaku-in , July 22, 2006 (English)
- Photo series - Japanese
Coordinates: 35 ° 25 ′ 46.49 " N , 132 ° 37 ′ 45.7" E