Itsukushima Shrine

Itsukushima Shrine is built not on the island of Miyajima but in front of it, on the tidal flats of a shallow bay in the Seto Inland Sea. Its vermilion halls stand on wooden posts, joined by long roofed corridors, and when the tide comes in the water slides beneath the floors until the whole complex seems to float, with the forested slopes of the island rising behind. Some two hundred metres out in the bay stands the great O-torii gate, one of the most familiar images of Japan. The island was long held so sacred that ordinary people were not meant to set foot on it, and the shrine was placed over the water so that pilgrims need not tread on holy ground; since 1878 no births or deaths are allowed near it.

Tradition dates the first shrine to 593. Its present form comes from 1168, when Taira no Kiyomori, leader of the ascendant Heike clan, rebuilt it on a lavish scale in honour of the three goddesses of the sea enshrined here, daughters of the storm god Susanoo. The buildings follow shinden-zukuri, the palace style of Heian-period aristocrats, with gently curving roofs and open verandas; the east and west corridors together run for about 195 metres. On the water between them sits a Noh stage, said to be the only one in Japan built over the sea, where the tide changes how the performance sounds. Many of the halls are National Treasures, and the shrine was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1996.

The O-torii is the ninth gate on this spot and was raised in 1875. It stands about 16.8 metres high, its main pillars of camphor wood, about 9.9 metres round, with a roof of cypress bark and the whole body lacquered vermilion. Remarkably, it is not sunk into the seabed: four smaller supporting legs make it a ryobu-style torii, and it stays upright under its own weight. At high tide it appears to float; at low tide the bay drains and it is possible to walk out to its base, and at night the gate is lit. The island around it is worth time too: deer roam its streets, and a ropeway and hiking trails climb Mount Misen, its highest peak, which rises behind the shrine.

Getting there

The shrine is on Itsukushima (Miyajima) in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. From Hiroshima Station, the JR Sanyo Line reaches Miyajimaguchi in about 25 minutes, and the Hiroden streetcar also runs there; from Miyajimaguchi pier, JR and Matsudai ferries cross in about 10 minutes, and the shrine is a ten-minute walk from the island's pier. The nearest airport is Iwakuni Kintaikyo Airport (IWK), about 18 km away.