Ōarai Isosaki Shrine

Interesting facts

The ninth-century chronicle says the two mysterious stones were each about a foot high, and the smaller ones around them looked like Buddhist monks without eyes or ears.

In 857, a year after the apparition, the shrine became an official state shrine and its deity was titled Yakushi Bosatsu Myōjin, after the Medicine Buddha.

The tenth-century Engishiki register ranks it among the Myōjin Taisha, a select group of shrines that received offerings at special imperial rites.

Its main deity, Ōnamuchi, is also venerated here as Daikokuten, one of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japanese folk belief.

The name plaque on the main torii was written by Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, a leading imperial figure of the Meiji era.

In September 1918, during the nationwide rice riots, about 300 fishermen carried a portable shrine into the sea and then attacked rice merchants while still bearing it.

The grounds hold a memorial to the light cruiser Naka of the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after the river that meets the sea beside Ōarai.

A sword forged in 1852 by the smith Chikanori, kept by the shrine, is a designated cultural property of Ibaraki Prefecture.

The name of its main festival, Hassaku, means the first day of the eighth month, the date on which it was held under the old lunar calendar.

The Ōarai Art Museum has a picture window designed to frame the sea torii on its rock like a painting hanging on the wall.

Why it is worth it

On a rocky reef just off the shore at Ōarai, a lone stone torii stands in the Pacific surf. This is the Kamiiso, the "rock of the gods", and it belongs to Ōarai Isosaki Shrine on the wooded hill behind the beach. At dawn the sun climbs out of the ocean directly behind the gate, and when the swell breaks over the rocks the torii seems to rise from the spray itself. It has become the emblem of the town and a celebrated place to watch the sun come up over the Pacific.

The shrine's origin story is recorded in an official chronicle of the ninth century. In 856, salt makers on this coast saw a light blazing up from the sea at night; the next day two strange stones had appeared on the shore, with some twenty smaller stones gathered around them. Through an oracle the stones announced themselves as Ōnamuchi (Ōkuninushi) and Sukunahikona, the two deities said to have shaped the land of Japan, returning from the east to help the people. The reef where they appeared is the Kamiiso, and the shrine has honoured the pair ever since. It shares this founding with its sister shrine, Sakatsura Isosaki, on the far side of the Naka River in Hitachinaka.

The buildings on the hill are the work of a revival. The shrine was ruined in the wars of the mid-sixteenth century, and in 1690 Tokugawa Mitsukuni, lord of the Mito domain, began its reconstruction; his successors completed it in the early eighteenth century. The main sanctuary, dated 1730, is a compact nagare-zukuri hall under a thatched roof; it and the oratory in front of it are protected as cultural properties of Ibaraki Prefecture, and the gate of the attendant guardians is listed by the town.

The main festival, the Hassaku-sai, is held on 25 August. At any time of year, the moment to come is before sunrise, when the torii on its rock is silhouetted against the sky over the ocean.

Getting there

The shrine stands on the coast of Ōarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, less than half a kilometre from the town's seafront. The nearest airport is Ibaraki Airport (IBR), about 22 km away. The nearest railway station is Ōarai on the Kashima Rinkai Railway's Ōarai–Kashima Line; from there it is about 40 minutes on foot, or a short bus ride or bicycle ride. Drivers arrive via the Mito-Ōarai interchange of the expressway.

Ōarai Isosaki Shrine

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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