Izumo Taisha
Interesting facts
- A Heian-period counting rhyme ranked Japan's largest buildings as Izumo's hall first, Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall second and Kyoto's imperial audience hall third.
- Historical records suggest the towering ancient hall collapsed seven times in about 200 years, from the mid-Heian period to the early Kamakura era.
- According to a tradition cited by the scholar Motoori Norinaga, in remote antiquity the hall stood twice as high again, about 96 metres.
- Each of the giant pillars unearthed in 2000 combines three trunks about 1.4 metres thick, and analysis links them to a main hall built in 1248.
- Inside the main hall, the seat of Okuninushi faces west rather than south towards the worshippers, a layout with several competing explanations.
- Until 1667 the shrine was surrounded by Buddhist halls and a pagoda; that pagoda was moved away and still stands at Nagusa Shrine in Hyogo.
- During the same 1667 reforms the shrine's chief deity was switched back from Susanoo to Okuninushi, in line with the ancient chronicles.
- The great straw rope on the Kagura hall is made in the neighbouring town of Iinan and is replaced every few years in a day-long operation using a crane.
- The Kagura hall's main room covers 270 tatami mats, and unusually for shrine architecture its front gable is decorated with stained glass.
- The bronze torii in front of the main precinct was donated in 1666 by Mori Tsunahiro, lord of the Choshu domain.
Why it is worth it
Izumo-taisha, officially Izumo Ōyashiro, is often described as the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan, and no written record says when it was founded. Its main hall gave its name to an entire architectural style, taisha-zukuri, and in front of the Kagura hall hangs a sacred straw rope of extraordinary scale: about 13.5 metres long and some five tonnes in weight, it has become the shrine's most recognisable image.
The shrine is dedicated to Ōkuninushi, the deity of good relationships and marriage. According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Japan's oldest chronicles, Ōkuninushi yielded his land to the descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu, who in return had a great palace built for him at Izumo. A record compiled around 950 describes the shrine as the tallest building in the land, about 48 metres high, taller than the hall of the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji. That claim long seemed a legend until 2000, when excavations uncovered the bases of enormous pillars, each bound together from three cedar trunks; they are now displayed at the shrine. The building was reduced in size around 1200, and the present main hall dates from 1744: 24 metres tall and 11 metres square at the base, raised on posts beneath a sweeping gabled roof with crossed finials. The main hall and its attached buildings were designated National Treasures in 1952. The deity has been moved to temporary quarters during the periodic rebuildings and renovations, most recently from 2008 until a ceremony in May 2013 attended by more than 8,000 people.
Local tradition holds that in the tenth month of the old lunar calendar all the gods of Japan gather at Izumo to decide the coming year's marriages, births and deaths. For that reason the month is called kamiarizuki, 'the month with gods', in Izumo, while the rest of the country knows it as the month without gods. The priesthood has been hereditary: the Senge and Kitajima families, said to descend from a son of Amaterasu, divided around 1340 and have both led the worship here.
The city of Izumo lies on the Sea of Japan coast in Shimane Prefecture, in a region so rich in myth that it is known as the land of the gods.
Getting there
Izumo-taisha stands in the northwest of the city of Izumo, about 8 km from the city centre. Izumo Taisha-mae Station, the terminus of the Ichibata Electric Railway's Taisha Line, is close to the shrine. Izumo Enmusubi Airport (IZO) is about 19 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Izumo-taisha , officially Izumo Ōyashiro, is one of the most ancient and important Shinto shrines in Japan. No record gives the date of establishment. Located in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, it hosts two major festivals. It is dedicated to the kami (god) Ōkuninushi , famous as the Shinto deity of marriage and to Kotoamatsukami, distinguishing heavenly kami. The shrine is widely regarded as the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan, predating the Ise Shrine.
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