Izumo travel guide

Top 10 sights in Izumo

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   1© MaedaAkihiko · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Izumo Taisha

   One of the oldest and most important shrines in Japan, with no recorded foundation date, dedicated to Ōkuninushi — the deity who by myth ceded the land to the imperial line. All Japan's gods are believed to assemble here in the tenth lunar month; the shimenawa rope over the hall weighs over five tonnes.

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   2© micra · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo

   A prefectural museum opened in 2007 beside Izumo Taisha, holding the 358 bronze swords from Kōjindani and bronze bells from Kamoiwakura. A model shows the shrine's medieval hall, which written sources put at forty-eight metres tall — a claim excavation of its pillar bases supported.

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3. 

   3© Naokijp · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Hinomisaki Shrine

   Two vermilion shrines on the cliffs at the western tip of Shimane, the lower to Amaterasu and the upper to her brother Susanoo. The buildings were rebuilt under the shogun Iemitsu in 1644, and the lighthouse beyond them is the tallest stone light in Japan.

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   4© Naokijp · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Susa Shrine

   The shrine where, according to the Izumo Fudoki of 733, Susanoo settled his own spirit and left the district his name. He is worshipped here with his wife Inada-hime and her parents, and a great cedar behind the hall, reckoned some 1,300 years old, draws pilgrims of its own.

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5. 

   5© Thinking thing · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Izumo Science Center

   A science centre in Izumo that works both as a school facility for local pupils and as a public museum, with a planetarium and hands-on exhibits.

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   6© Sapphire123 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kamo-Iwakura Site

   A site at Kamo in Unnan east of Izumo where thirty-nine Yayoi-period bronze bells were found together in 1996 — the largest such cache ever found in Japan. They had been buried deliberately on a hillside.

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7. 

   7© by Reggaeman · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kōjindani Site

   A Yayoi ritual site at Hikawa in Izumo where 358 bronze swords were found in a single pit in 1984, more than the total previously recorded for the whole country. The find overturned assumptions that Izumo's mythical prominence had no material basis.

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   Nishidani Tumulus Cluster

   A group of burial mounds at Ōtsu in Izumo from the late Yayoi to early Kofun period, of the square type with projecting corners peculiar to the San'in region. They are read as the graves of the chieftains behind the Izumo myths.

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9. 

   9© by Monado · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Gakuen-ji Temple

   A Tendai temple in the mountains south of Izumo, said to have been founded in 594, whose main hall is built against the rock beside a waterfall. Benkei is by tradition associated with it and its treasures include Heian-period sculpture.

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    10

    Imaichi Dainenji Kofun

    A Kofun-period mound at Imaichi in Izumo, of the sixth century, with a horizontal stone chamber whose house-shaped sarcophagus survives. Grave goods and pottery from it have been studied to date the burial.

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   Kamienya Tsukiyama Kofun

   A Kofun-period mound at Kamienya in Izumo, taken as the grave of a local chief, with a stone chamber that has been surveyed. It stands in a group of mounds on the southern edge of the Izumo plain.

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   2© 運動会プロテインパワー · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Ageshima Kofun

   A Kofun-period mound at Kunitomi in Izumo, designated a National Historic Site in 1957. Grave goods and Hajiki pottery found in it fixed the date of its construction.

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   Kamienya Jizōyama Kofun

   A Kofun-period mound at Kamienya in Izumo, one of several clustered in that district and built during the mound-building centuries of this region.

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   4© 運動会プロテインパワー · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Kunidomi-Nakamura Kofun

   A Kofun-period mound at Kunidomari in Izumo, part of the scattered groups of tumuli across the Izumo plain.

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   5© photo: Qurren (talk) Taken with Canon IXY 10S (Digital IXUS 210) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Inasa Beach

   A wide sand beach west of Izumo Taisha where, by tradition, the gods of Japan come ashore each October for their yearly gathering. Priests hold the welcoming rite here after dark, and a small shrine stands on a rock offshore.

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   Takarazuka Kofun

   A Kofun-period mound at Shimogoshi in Izumo, investigated as the burial of a locally powerful group and preserved on its original site.

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