Izumo Daijingu Shrine

About Izumo Daijingu Shrine

Izumo Daijingu Shrine (出雲大神宮, Izumo Daijingū) in Chitose-cho, Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture, is the ichinomiya, or leading shrine, of the old province of Tanba, whose present main hall dates from 1346; by the shrine's own tradition its first sanctuary was built in 709. The main hall is an Important Cultural Property, and twelve further buildings and structures in the grounds are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The shrine is dedicated to Ōkuninushi and his consort Mihotsuhime. Behind the halls rises Mount Mikage, which is itself treated as the deity's body, and rock seats of the gods (iwakura) survive on its slopes. In the tenth-century Engishiki register it was ranked among the most eminent shrines, and under the Meiji system it became a national shrine of the middle grade. The old name Izumo Jinja is still carved on the stone marker along the approach.

Despite the name, this is not Izumo Taisha, the great shrine in Shimane Prefecture. Izumo Daijingu is sometimes called Moto-Izumo, the original Izumo, because its own records say the deity Ōkuninushi was moved from here in Tanba to Kizuki in Izumo, the reverse of the usual assumption. That is shrine tradition rather than settled history.

The medieval essay collection Tsurezuregusa (section 236) tells of a monk who visited the Izumo shrine in Tanba and was moved to tears by guardian lions set back to back, only to learn that local children had turned them round. The anecdote shows the shrine was already well known in the capital by the fourteenth century.

Protected Buildings

The oldest building at Izumo Daijingu Shrine is the main hall, a three-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary roofed in cypress bark. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to 1346 in the early Muromachi period and lists it as an Important Cultural Property from April 14, 1906. The shrine says Ashikaga Takauji had it rebuilt in 1345, one year earlier.

Twelve more structures were registered together on February 4, 2021, under registration numbers 26-0615 to 26-0626. They span two centuries.

The earliest is the stone torii of 1718, followed by the small upper shrine, Kami-no-Yashiro, in 1813. The Meiji era brought a staged revival: the notice board in 1873, the worship hall in 1878, the ritual implement storehouse and the temizuya in 1885, and the offering preparation hall in 1908. In the early Showa years the shrine office (1931), the middle gate and norito hall (1934) and the corridors (1935) completed the approach to the main hall. The Kurodayu auxiliary shrine of 1938 is the youngest of the twelve.

The registration treats this layering, a medieval sanctuary wrapped in Edo, Meiji and early Showa additions, as a single historic landscape.

Layout of the Grounds

The approach to Izumo Daijingu Shrine enters from the southwest and turns north toward the halls. The stone torii stands on low steps on the north side of the bend, with the notice board just in front of it to the west.

Past the torii, the shrine office sits on the west of the approach and the temizuya faces it on the east. Further east, on higher ground, is the white-walled ritual implement storehouse.

Straight ahead is the worship hall, and behind it the middle gate, the norito hall and the main hall line up on one axis. Corridors run east and west from the middle gate, and an openwork fence turns north from their ends to enclose the sanctuary. The offering preparation hall stands west of the gate, and the music pavilion sits on a stone terrace to the east.

Kami-no-Yashiro is on the wooded slope of Mount Mikage east of the main hall. The Kurodayu auxiliary shrine lies outside the precinct, about 100 meters to the west. The shrine asks worshippers to pay their respects there first, before the main hall.

Visiting and Getting There

The grounds of Izumo Daijingu Shrine are open to worshippers at all times and there is no admission fee. The shrine office generally receives visitors from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., though hours can change on festival days, so check with the shrine before you go. None of the halls are open inside; everything is viewed from the outside.

To go up to the rock seats on Mount Mikage you must first register at the shrine office. The mountain is sacred ground, and the office explains how far visitors may go.

By public transport, take the Keihan Kyoto Kotsu bus (the Kameoka City Furusato Bus) from the north exit stop at JR Kameoka Station on the Sagano Line; the ride to the Izumo Daijingu-mae stop takes about 15 minutes and the shrine is right there. Buses also run from Chiyokawa Station. Services are infrequent, so check the timetable. A taxi from either station takes about 10 minutes.

By car, the shrine is about 15 minutes from the Chiyokawa interchange on the Kyoto Jukan Expressway, with parking for about 80 cars nearby.

Festivals

The annual festival of Izumo Daijingu Shrine is held on October 21, the traditional date of the sanctuary's construction in 709. At the Hanashizume festival on April 18 a flower-hat dance, the Izumo Furyu Hanaodori, is performed; it is said to have grown out of rain-making rites. Shrine maidens dance kagura in the worship hall at both festivals.