Hinomisaki Shrine

 

Hinomisaki is a grand shrine at the western tip of the Shimane Peninsula, in a small cove under the Hinomisaki Lighthouse, the tallest in East Asia.

When showing visitors around, I often encourage them to visit Hinomisaki Shrine instead of, or at least as well as, Izumo Taisha.

The shrine claims to have been founded in 536BCE, which is as absurd as the claim that Jimmu became emperor more than a hundred years before that. It is said that Susano decided to "settle" here after "creating" Izumo, and his son built a shrine to him nearby.

A shrine to Amaterasu was established on Fumijima, the sacred island offshore that I covered in the last post.

The Amaterasu shrine was moved here in 948. At the same time a Jinguji was established within the shrine so there was a Yakushi Hall, a Sutra Hall, a 3 storey Pagoda and a Tahoto Pagoda, a Daishi Hall, and a bell tower

In Kyoto, the shrine became famous as a centre of Shugendo.

The current buildings, most of which are Important Cultural Properties, were built under order of Tokugawa Iemitsu and were completed in 1644. They are in Gongen Zukuri style.

Both the local Matsudaira Daimyo and the Shogunate supported the shrine with large grants of land and Hinomisaki Shrine was the second largest shrine in the whole San-in region, after Izumo Taisha.

Now here comes the intriguing thing. The main hall, called Sunset Palace, enshrined Susano, and the smaller, Upper Hall enshrined Amaterasu, but in 1868 they switched them. This is not mentioned anywhere in the shrines website nor in the Japanese wikipedia page. Its all written as if Amaterasu was always the main kami.

When I first visited here more than twenty years ago I had recently learned about the chigi, the cross pieces on the roof. If the ends are cut horizontally, then the kami is female, if vertical then male.

Here the Amaterasu hall has a male chigi. I asked a young priest about it and what he said was that in 1868, when modern Shinto was created with Amaterasu at the top, it was decided here that people praying to Susano in the main hall had their backs to the Amaterasu Hall and that this was considered disrespectful, so they swapped. Because the buildings are Important Cultural Properties they could not be altered, so the chigi remained. I strongly suspect that nowadays they would not be so eager to share this history.

As with so many other shrines throughout Japan around 1868, not only did they remove all the Buddhist connections, but changed the kami too.

There are lots of secondary shrines inside and just outside the grounds including an Inari, and a Munakata. There is a line of 19 shrines representing various shrines that were brought into the shrine in the early 20th century during the shrine closures.

Most interesting to me is a Korean Shrine that enshrines Susano and Isotakeru. It is thought this was here before the Hinomisaki shrine was moved here from nearby. It links to the Korean Forge Shrine nearby as well as the Korea-Susano shrines down in Iwami.

The previous post in this series documenting my deep exploration of the Japan Sea Coast was on Fumijima Island.

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Fumishima Sacred Island for the Birds

 

Down below Hinomisaki, the westernmost cape of the Shimane Peninsula, is a cluster of small islands, the largest being Fumishima.

Located less than 200 meters from the harbour in front of Hinomisaki Shrine, the island is topped by a small torii and shrine.

The small shrine is a kind of memorial to the shrine that stood here until 948, which enshrined Amaterasu. It was moved to Hinomisaki. Later, in early Meiji, Amaterasu became the main kami of Hinomisaki after swapping with Susano. More on that in the next post....

The island is a National Natural Monument because it is a breeding ground for black-tailed gulls.

In early winter, about 5,000 of the birds migrate here to overwinter and breed. They leave by July. I was here in late June, so most were still there.

Other than naturalists studying the gulls, the only humans allowed on the island are Shinto priests who come once a year.

The previous post in this series of my walk along the Japan Sea Coast was on the Hinomisaki Cape itself and the lighthouse.

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Hinomisaki Western Cape of Shimane Peninsula

 

10,000 years ago, the Shimane Peninsula was a long narrow island running parallel to the coast of Izumo.

Looking at a map, it is not hard to imagine as the two large bodies of water, Lake Shinji, the 8th biggest lake in Japan, and Nakaumi, a large lagoon, take up much of the space where the sea used to be.

Even 1500 years ago, at the time of the first Izumo myths, much of what is now land was still estuary and marsh. The peninsula is the land at the heart of the Kunibiki Myth, wherein a kami pulls land from three other places to make the peninsula.

In pre-modern Japan, coastal shrines and temples used their lanterns as navigation guides for  ships at sea.

In the Meiji Period, with the opening up of more and more ports to foreign shipping, Japan began building western-style lighthouses.

In 1899, Hamada and Sakaiminato ports were opened to foreign trade, and in response, Hinomisaki Lighthouse was built.

It opened in 1903, and I believe it was the tallest lighthouse in East Asia at that time.

It remains the tallest lighthouse in Japan and was made an Important Cultural Property a few years ago. It is also included in the top 100 lighthouses of the world.

It is 43 metres high and built out of a cut-stone exterior and brick interior.

The light, which has the biggest lense in Japan , is 63 meters above sea level and can be seen from 40 kilometers away.

For a small fee visitors can climb to the top and enjoy the fantastic views.

There is a really nice walk around the cape....

With a major shrine nearby, the two small fishing villages have a collection of ryokan and minshuku and a modern, luxury Onsen

This visit was on mid-summers day, 2020, and I was on day 7 of my walk exploring the details of the Sea of Japan coastline....

The previous post was on the walk up the coast from Taisha Port...

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From Taisha to Hinomisaki

 

The day after the Summer Solstice, and my route now hugs the convoluted coastline up to Hinomisaki.

Hinomisaki is the western cape of the Shimane Peninsula, with Mihonoseki being the eastern cape.

!0,000 years ago the Shimane Peninsula was an island. In Izumo mythology it was formed from the land of three distant countries that were pulled here and attached to Izumo by two giant ropes. Hinomisaki is held to the mainland by the "rope" of the beach that runs from Izumo Taisha to Tagi.

A lot of water still lies between the mainland of Izumo and the Shimane Peninsula, including Lake Shinji and  the Nakaumi lagoon. In  historical times the land between Izumo and Taisha was marshland that has since been reclaimed.

There are no settlements and only a few, scattered habitations along the road from Taisha up to the cape.

The final photo in the post shows an abandoned hotel up near the cape. Probably built in the tourism boom of the 1960's. I have yet to explore it.

The two previous photos to that final one  show a small inlet with a traditional Japanese ryokan.

Very popular with fishermen.....

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Japan Sea Coast was on Taisha Fishing Port.

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.