Inasa Beach & Izumo Myths

 

Up before the sun on the longest day of the year, I left my beach  campsite and started up towards Taisha.

Looking back up the beach towards where I started yesterday, Mount Sanbe is clearly visible in the predawn light.

I have one more small rivermounth to cross, the Hori, before my way up to Inasa Beach is along the debris-strewn, concrete-protected beach....

At Inasa Beach, sunrise illuminates the most famous landmark,... Benten Island.

Until fairly recently it was still a true island, surrounded by water at low tide, but now the beach has built up and the island is accessible at except at very hight tides...

The small shrine on the island was to Benten,.... otherwise known as Benzaiten, a Hindu deity brought to Japan. with esoteric Buddhism and then adopted as a kami as well as a Buddhist deity.

She is the ony female among Japan's Seven Luck Gods, but in early Meiji she was replaced in the shrine by a "purely Shinto" deity, Toyotamahime.

The beach and Bentenjima have become a "powerspot", and later in the day will be crowded with tourists, but at this time I am alone.

The long beach that sweeps from here to the area of coastline below Mount Sanbe is, for most of its length, known as Nagahama... Long Beach. According to the Kunibiki myth, it was a rope used by the kami to hold the land now known as the Shimane Peninsula to the mainland of Izumo after it was "pulled" from several other sites including the Korean Peninsula. It is believed the myth explains a series of migrations into the Izumo area, or the extension of Izumo influence to those areas.

Inasa beach is also where, every November, "all the kami of Japan" arrive for their annual meeting. Actually it is one of many spots where the kami are said to arrive, but the myth has come to simplified.

The beach is also home to the Kuniyuzuri myth, whereby Izumo hands over rule of Japan to the descendants of Amaterasu, the current lieage of Yamato rulers.

Such a major national myth would you think be a major site, but actually it is a small rock, on private property, tucked away behind the beach.

The previous post in this series on my deep exploration of the Sea of Japan coastline was on the solstice sunset the evening before...

if you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the most recent posts.