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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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Local lore says a Shirahama priest prayed after poor harvests, then saury washed ashore. The fish-and-rice offering became festival fare; today, pressed sanma sushi is still served at the shrine’s October festival.
At October’s Hitachi-sai, beach fires announce the festival to the kami of offshore islands. Shrine lore says Mishima Daimyojin arrived from the south, created 10 islands, and placed his divine wives and children there.
The shrine’s 2,400-year age is a tradition; a firmer anchor is the 832 Nihon Kōki, which names Ikonahime and Mishima kami as Myōjin after reports of dramatic land-making in Izu.
For about 300 years, local people have offered Sanbasō at Shirahama’s autumn festival. The 3 local districts take turns each year; it is now the only surviving Sanbasō performance in Shimoda.
At the festival’s close, shoulder-high bamboo wands topped with folded paper are set adrift from Daimyojin Rock toward the islands. Local tradition says the west wind, Onbe-nishi, will carry them to the kami.
More than 100 junipers grow in the shrine’s protected 3.1-hectare grove, with the largest old trees reaching 15.4 m. Some even grow on the wave-cut cliff closest to the sea.
In 1607, gold-mine official Okubo Nagayasu dedicated a 42.3-cm bronze gong here, praying for the mine’s success. Its inscription preserves his name; the bronze is traditionally said to contain a notable amount of gold.
The shrine grounds shelter a nationally designated natural monument: an aogiri stand at the tree’s northern distribution limit. Despite the Japanese name ending in kiri, aogiri is not a true paulownia.
From the sea torii, clear days bring the Izu Islands into view. The shrine notes that, as the seasons shift, the dawn sun and late-night moon can appear to rise straight through its opening.
A 1583 document preserved at the shrine records the annual tax assigned to Shirahama’s headman and villagers by Sano-Hōjō Ujitada. On its reverse, scholar Banno Tomonobu later added notes—two kinds of history on one sheet.
