Matsubara is the small settlement below Hamada Castle on the mouth of the Hamada River.
The shrine right below the castle and immediately next to the sea is, not surprisingly, an Itsukushima Shrine...
There is a secondary Ebisu shrine in the grounds and hanging inside the common pairing of two masks of Ebisu and Daikoku. 2 of the 7 lucky gods, the pairing has deeper significance in this region as Daikoku is read as Okuninushi, and the father-son pair of Okuninushi and Ebisu are important in Izumo mythology.
The Itsukushima shrine is a branch of the famous one on Miyajima. This one only enshrined Ichikishima and not her sisters...
The chikaraishi stones were used in displays of strength at festivals...
The shrine has some very nice, large paintings.....
A few hundred meters up the narrow inlet towards Tonoura, the Kitamaebune port in earlier times, is a Kotohira Shrine set among a rocky outcropping.
This was originally a small Buddhist hermitage in 1711, but a few years later, following a dream, Kotohira Gongen was invited from Shikoku. In 1868, with the separation of Buddhas and Kami, it was turned into a shrine.
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