After passing by the entrance to Mount Sanbe, my route continued west down the Isa River.
My first stop, in the village of Yamaguchi, was the village Hachiman Shrine.
It was established in 1095, but I can't find from which "mother" shrine it is from, Usa, or Iwashimizu I think it is a little too early to be a branch of Tsurugaoka.
Curiously it only lists Ojin and Jingu. No mention of Chuai or any consort kami.
The style of architecture with glass doors on three sides of the worship hall is unusual.
Heading down the Isa River, the Yaezakura, the late cherry blossom with thick, pink blossoms appears several times.... I find it much nicer than the Yoshino cherries that dominate...
Of course, lots of other flowers are around at this time..
At some point as I approach Izuchi Shrine I pass from Iwami into Izumo..... it would have been clearly demarcated in earlier times....
Izuchi Shrine is written as Ijitsu Shrine on Googlemaps. It was known as Wakaichi Gongen until 1868.
It enshrines Kunisatsuchi no mikoto, a fairly obscure kami mentioned early in the myths and then disappearing. The honden dates back to 1812.
If you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.