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...

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Solstice on the Beach

 

I have a personal tradition of trying to sleep out on the night of the summer solstice.

My preferred location is a mountaintop with 360-degree views so I can watch the sun set and then rise again.

My second choice would be a beach facing west, and so it was back in the summer of 2020 I found myself on day 6 of my walk exploring in depth the Sea of Japan coastline

I've seen egrets gathering together to roost for the night before, but I'v not seen so many flying together as a flock.

My spot for the night was a covered picnic shelter on the beach not far from Izumo Taisha.

In the far distance, Mount Sanbe...

My spot was at the mouth of the Kando River....

I could look back and see where I had started walking that day ( photo 3)

During the evening there were several fishermen visiting the beach.....

But otherwise a nice quiet spot with only the occasional mosquito....

The previous post in this series was on my walk from Kirara Taki to this point.

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Along Nagahama

 Continuing with my walk along the Sea of Japan Coast........

After leaving the roadstation at Taki Kirara I headed off along Nagahama, the long beach that runs up to near Izumo Taisha.

Sanpoko Shrine is a small, local shrine, just across from the shoreline. Can't find which kami is enshrined here though there is a small statue of Ebisu.

Not surprising as he is the kami for fishermen. Also was a Kojin straw serpent wrapped around a tree.

I have found one if these at every single shrine I have visited in Izumo, and with some shrines having more than one, which suggests that Kojin is the most common deity in this area...

A small stream with its source just a few kilometers away enters the sea.

It was a pleasant Saturday so lots of people were enjoying the beach. This was late June, 2020, and while social distancing was in operation, there was no kind of lockdown in Japan....

The beach runs pretty much all the way to the Shimane Peninsula, and according to one of Izumo's myths, the Kunibiki Story, the Peninsula was formed by "pulling" land from other areas including the Korean Peninsula.

When the god had drawn these lands together, he anchored them to Izumo with two great ropes. Nagahama was the rope that anchored the western end of the peninsula to Mount Sanbe, the volcanic peak not too far away down in Iwami.

An unusual wind farm in that the wind generators are relatively small....

The other rope that anchored the eastern end of the peninsula was the huge sandbar of Sakaiminato which connected the peninsula to Mount Daisen.

Soon I reach the mouth of the Kanda River, a main river that flows down from the Chugoku Mountains.

Not long after moving to Shimane, one of the first long-distance walks I did was a three-day walk down the Kanda River to Izumo Taisha for Kamiarizuki. One of these days I will write it up and post it.

All the waterways that pass through the Izumo Plain, between the mountains and the Shimane Peninsula, are heavily engineered with straightening and embankments etc. This whole area was the sea 10,000 years ago and in historical times was mostly marsh.

As I am going to be sleeping out on the beach I need to stock up on food and drink and the most convenient convenience store involves heading up the river a little ways and then crossing and heading to the store before coming back to the river and heading back downstream on the opposite bank.

The line of pruned trees is a windbreak protecting an old farmhouse. Called tsujimatsu, these "living walls" are unique to Izumo and traditionally use Black Pine.

A newer tradition of the area is growing grapes for the Shimane Winery.

Near the mouth of the Kanda River another river, the Shinnaito runs parallel with it before joining it. The Shin in Shinnaito suggest that this is an engineered river part of land draining and reclamation.

The fact it has massive flood control barriers also suggests that...

I have never seen cormorants so high up in a tree before....

I'm getting close to my resting place for the night. Up ahead is the famous Inasa Beach next to Izumo Taisha where all the kami of Japan arrive later in the Autumn.

Looking back, Mount Sanbe is clearly visible. The previous post in this series was on the section of coast between Tagi and Taki Kirara...