Hashi Beach, Harbour, & Tsuto Shrine

 

After leaving Kushiro, the old San-in Do is a narrow, single-lane road that runs near the rail line and  comes into the back of Hashi completely avoiding the new and busy Route 9

Home to a pretty good "Oceanarium", the beach is part of the Iwami Seaside Park and is very popular in summer.

At the far end of the beach is the tiny harbour for Hashi.

On the hillside up above the harbour is Tsuto Shrine.

This is the main shrine for the town, although just over a hundred years ago an Otoshi Shrine and an Inari Shrine were merged with it. It is yet another local shrine listed in the Engi Shiki.

It is believed that the ruling clan, an offshoot of the clan that colonized the Iwami coastal region in ancient times established a shrine to their ancestors here. Their ancestral deity was Komemochitsuki, and in some way he is connected with mochi rice cakes. They are connected to the clan who founded Kushiro Shrine, and the shrines down near Masuda.

This seems to be the eastern limit of their territory. They were obviously placed here by the Yamato as a check on the power of Izumo. Further East and into Izumo it seems the Mononobe were the clan sent for the same purpose.

In 889 the clan enshrined Tagorihime, the elder of the three Munakata, daughters of Susano.

A myth/legend has it that as a young girl  Tagorihime was too volatile even for Susano, so she was sent away and came ashore on Hashi Beach. A local couple raised here as their own. She never spoke.

Later, a signal fire lit to warn of an attack on Izumo by a "foreign" enemy, caused Tagorihime to reveal her true identity and a dream of Susano that if Tagorihime returned, Izumo would be successful in defeating the enemy. Tagorihime set off but her foster parents chased after her to stop her. She hid behind a rock at what is now a shrine in Gotsu. Her fraught foster parents passed by her and died on the slopes of Asari Fujisan, a coastal mountain near my place. Tagorihime reached Izumo and the enemy was defeated.

The oldest version of this story dates to the 15th century at Hinomisaki Shrine, though it is probably much older. It is said that this shrine  and the one in Gotsu where the rock is were both territories of Hinomisaki Shrine.

Around the main shrine building are an Ebisu Shrine, a Konpira Shrine, a Yasaka Shrine, and a Tenmangu Shrine. The small shrine slightly above the main shrine is believed to enshrine Komemochizuki.

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku and the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimages was on Majima and the Benten Shrine I stopped in at on my walk to start heading up the coast again from Hashi.

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Kawada Hachiman Shrine

 

Kawada Hachiman is the biggest shrine in the Yamakawa district of western Tokushima, but is deserted most of the year outside of the annual festival which draws visitors from across the prefecture.

There is no date for when it was originally founded, but it was rebuilt in 1189. It is said to have been a guardian shrine for the Inbe Clan.

The Inbe, or Imbe, were a powerful clan at court but lost power to the Nakatomi/Fujiwara. They sent a branch of the clan to what is now Tokushima to grow hemp for imperial shinto rituals. Another branch of the clan controlled the production of magatama in what is now the Tamatsukuri area near Matsue.

It is believed that at first the three "Munakata Princesses" were enshrined here, Ichikishimahime, Tagitsuhime, and Tagorihime. Later Hachiman was added.

Within the grounds is an Atago Shrine, a Kasuga Shrine, and a Shinmei Shrine.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on temple 8, Chozenji, further upstream.

Munakata Taisha

 

I passed through the grounds of Munakata Taisha on my way to the final temple on the Kyushu Pilgrimage.

I entered through the rear entrance and passed by the Second Shrine and Third Shrine housed in structures that were relocated here from the rebuilding of Ise Shrine in 1973.

Munakata Taisha is actually three different shrines, the biggest here on the mainland is Hetsu-gu, with the Nakatsu-gu just offshore on Oshima, and the third, Okitsu-gu located 50k away on the small island of Okinoshima.

These second and third shrines were established to make it easy for people to visit all three without having to make a ferry crossing, and also because the Okitsu-guis is an uninhabited island where women are not allowed.

The three kami are sisters, Ichikishimahime, the youngest, here, Tagitsuhime on Oshima, and Tagorihime, the oldest, on Okinoshima.

Ichikishimahime is the primary kami of the famous Itsukushima Shrine and its branches.

The three sisters were created by the siblings Susano and Amaterasu. The male children created were attributed to Amaterasu and include the mythical lineage of the imperial family. The three females were given to Susano, though some with a nationalistic bent claim them also for Amaterasu, forgetting that to do so would put the imperial lineage under Susano....

The three shrines and islands were very important in trade and travel between Japan and Asia, and the three sisters are usually considered protectors of maritime journeys.

The rituals that were conducted on Okinoshima between the 4th and 9th centuries have left a wealth of archeological treasures, sone of which can be seen in the museum here.

It has also led to Okinoshima being registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The ancient Munakata Clan were obviously powerful players in the introduction of technology and culture from the Korean Peninsula and mainland China.

On this visit I was in a hurry so didn't visit the main shrine compound, rather enjoyed the cherry blossoms around the pond at the entrance.

The previous post was on Munakata Kannonji Temple.

Itsukushima Shrine, Setogashima, Hamada

Setogashima is a tiny island in the harbor of Hamada. The Itsukushima shrine is the only shrine on the island. The three sisters enshrined here (daughters of Susano) are known to be protectors of fishermen, so Itsukushima shrines are common in fishing villages.

The 3 home shrines of the Munakata sisters are located in north west Kyushu, one on the mainland, and the other 2 on 2 small islands. The Munakata clan were responsible for protecting the sea lanes between Kyushu and the Korean peninsular.

The shrine has no secondary shrines within its precincts, and no kagura den, so for matsuri they use the nearby Shimoyama Inari Shrine. The channel seperating Setogashima from the mainland is only a stones throw wide, so a small bridge connects it, but still a huge multi-million dollar bridge was constructed.

It's actually a very quiet, picturesque fishing village of a few dozen houses, and as one of the main harvests in this area is squid, it's not surprising to see squid drying in the sun.