Itsukushima Jinja
Itsukushima Jinja is one of the most famous shrines in Japan and has received patronage from equally powerful families over the years. The shrine is named after the island on which it stands, but more regularly the island is called Miyajima, meaning shrine island, while the shrine is named Itsukushima. Said to have been built as early as the 6th century, Itsukushima Jinja is not actually built on the island. Miyajima is itself a god and therefore the shrine it not built on the island, but the tidal flats. One of the most important and prominant patrons of the shrine was Taira Kiyomori, the first samurai to ever hold political power in the Imperial Court. The shrine was one of his greatest treasures, and with his pull in the Imperial Court, he made the shrine an oppulant complex with Noh theater stages, palace architecture, and a layout which resembles a bird with outstretched wings when seen from the opposite shore. Because of being built on tide flats, the shrine and iconic water tori appear to float in the water at high tide. At low tide visitors can walk out to the tori.
For the casual: 10. For the educated: 10.
I don't really want to do this, but I felt it was necessary to get the bad stuff out of the way before getting on to the serious rants that I have rumbling through my mind. So the bad is basically that the shrine is a tourist trap. So you're in Hiroshima, what should you do? Well anyone and everyone will tell you that you need to go to Miyajima and visit the temples and shrines. Therefore, everyone who has ever Googled Japan, Hiroshima, shrines, or anything related to anything Japanese has probably seen or heard of the tori at Itsukushima Jinja and will want to see it. Any free time available to people will be used going to this shrine and some of the other locations on the island. Your best bet for getting to the island and through the shrine with minimal crowds is to go either first thing in the morning, and I do mean first thing, or on weekdays when most people are doing people things. Beyond that, there really aren't many reasons not to go to the shrine.
There's a lot I can say about this shrine. For one, it's beautiful, serene, and iconic, and that's only the water! Ok, bad joke, but honestly this is one of the most amazing shrines in Japan and clearly deserving of its UNESCO World Heritage status. The shrine is built upon a myriad of support posts painted vermillian while the walls are painted a clean white. The shrine is clearly an attempt, albeit a successful one, to bring the grandeur of the Imperial Court to Hiroshima. On this island, it can be hypothisized (though not proven) that Taira Kiyomori may have even used the shrine and the island as a way to live beyond his status in the Imperial Court. Tropic blue waters ebb and flood everyday, the cove in which it is built is surrounded by the perfect scenery, and the affluent Imperial artistry exhibited at the shrine does very little to make a humble spectacle. This shrine was built to the be as grand as the gods, especially the one who built it: Taira Kiyomori. Ok, I admit that I have a prefered animosity towards Kiyomori, but I won't fault him for what he helped build.
There are several key locations in the shrine as the shrine is not dedicated to one god alone. There are several other gods whose shrines are small attachements to the main shrine. The main shrine, the area of the room where one worships the god directly, is one of the largest in Japan and is typically bustling year round. The shrine is built around a center axis which has the main shrine, an outdoor stage where imperial dances are performed, and also a pier with a large bronze lantern at the end. This central axis does indeed line up with the tori in the water as it was once required that guests entering or leaving the shrine were to sail their boats through the tori to pay respects as one is expected to at shrines. (See Introduction to Shrines)
As mentioned earlier, the shrine is also home to a Noh stage for performaces. The viewers sit on one walkway of the shrine while the stage and its walkway are separated by water. If you're not familiar with Noh theater, it's very much like the opera in terms of style and patronage though its is performed on a much smaller scale. The stage is easy to identify with an open square stage with a thatched roof above, a bridge crossing on the left, and a great pine tree painted on the stage's back wall. Noh is a style of slow moving theater that focuses on a mixture of music and poetry to tell the story. A small contingent of musicians sits on the stage playing a variety of instruments but in particular are a main flute player and two to three drummers who call out almost like howls and then hit their drums with one hand, each drum making a different style of pop. A collection of chanters sit to the side and essentially chant the exposition of the story between scenes. The main actors typically come in one at a time in ellaborate costumes ranging from fishermen to nobles of the court. The character enters to center stage and addresses the audience at all times as there are rarely other characters on stage. They enter the stage by walking slowly across a bridge from the backstage to the main stage. Across this bridge everything is silent as it is believed that the journey across the stage is also a journey for the actor to begin as themselves and end as the character. These main actors wear masks to fully imurse themselves in the role they are performing. These characters will often perform monologues of poetry with the main chanter to tell the story. Once they've performed their piece, they slowly leave the way they came in silence. Noh was a beloved theater of the samurai nobility and so it seems only natural that Itsukushima Jinja would have a stage.
One of my favorite aspects of the shrine was the locality. The water is a beautiful shade of blue that becomes almost tropical in the shallows. The mountains of the island tower above giving an otherwise typical cove a rather close an intimate connection. Everything is close: the people, the buildings, the trees, everything. As you walk around the shrine you are given new glimpses at the world around you, but the shrine as well takes on new meanings and images in relation. Climbing to the pinacle of Miyajima and seeing all there is to see, the shrine in its bird-like design, takes on different meanings as you see it in relation to everything else. It is such a beautiful and charasmatic shrine that it's hard to look away.
