Idzumo is one of the four most important Shinto shrines
of Japan, along with Ise, Meiji, and Atsuta.
It has been called the Home of the Gods,
and is the home of the roguish storm god, Suso-no-Wo in Japanese
creation myths. It is the most ancient of all the shrines and is
soaked in history and legend. It is also the destination of millions
of Shinto pilgrims in a regular stream. Like these other main shrines,
Idzumo is in the historic Japanese (Shinmei) architectural
style, with no Chinese (curving roof) influences. (It is sometimes
written "Izumo", and the accent is on the first syllable.)
[Picture (clickable): 'Adachi-ga-hara',
Noh play; paper-cut art by Shoto Kimura.]
Like any famous holy destination in Japan, the shrine is surrounded by
tourist hotels, hawkers, and trinket shops; but once inside the large
shrine compound, the atmosphere is imposing and, if you know some of
the legends, magical. Idzumo is worth a trip in itself, but should be
combined with the historically interesting old city of
)
Historical Background
Current historical thought maintains that the earliest Japanese civilizations grew up in two areas, around Idzumo and in the southern island of Kyushu. While there were probably early influences of South Pacific or southern Asian ("proto-Malay") peoples in Kyushu, both areas were strongly influenced by an influx of Mongolian tribes migrating through the Korean peninsula. These people from the northern part of mainland Asia brought a metal culture (bronze and then iron) which was more advanced than that of the local Japanese inhabitants.
It is generally hypothesized that it was the more militaristic people of Kyushu who moved north into the more fertile central area of Japan (east of present day Osaka, near the Pacific coast of Honshu Island), subjugating and intermingling with the locals. The equally civilized Idzumo culture on the northern Japan Sea coast was allowed general autonomy within its own region, while the Japanese imperial dynasty eventually developed in the central 'Yamato' area east of Osaka. But because Idzumo had a richer religious culture, the creation myths and animistic traditions of both areas were mixed up together in the early Shinto religion of the first imperial courts.
Everywhere else in Japan, the (modern-day) month of November -- or October in the previous Lunar Calendar -- is called Kannazuki, meaning "month without Gods". This is because all the Shinto Gods are known to congregate at Idzumo in November, where it is called Kamiari-zuki, or "the month with Gods". Accordingly, the Kamiari Matsuri festival is held in Idzumo in the middle of November.
An introductory note on religion: Ninety percent of the Japanese people are Shinto and ninety percent are Buddhist -- they participate in both religious traditions, although many Japanese claim to have little religious fervor at all. Almost everyone is married by a Shinto priest, and buried in a Buddhist ceremony. The other ten percent of Japanese are Christians, with a smattering of other Asian religions practiced mostly by immigrants. Shinto places of worship are called shrines, while temples are Buddhist. (Refer to Shrines and Temples, in the Appendix, below, for more information on Japanese religions.)
To see:
Naturally, you can troop through the grounds in a couple of hours or
less, as many Japanese tour groups do. But the pleasant atmosphere of
the ancient shrines, in their more ancient forest, makes it very
worthwhile to spend the night here. That way you can enjoy strolling
the grounds both in the evening and in the early morning when they are
at their best -- not to mention their least crowded. Naturally there
are various auxiliary shrine and temple buildings, gardens, and a
museum. While it is the oldest historically, of course the shrine is
made of wood and thatch, and the buildings themselves are regularly
refurbished and re-constructed.
Should you decide to stick around even longer, there is a quiet coastal area comprising Hi-no-Misaki National Park and Marine Park, which is just beyond the shrine compound. It is a good place to walk or bike around for half a day or so.
Getting there:
First get up to the San-In line (Tottori, Kurayoshi, or Yonago near the Japan Sea coast) from Kyoto or Kobe. Take the San-In Main line west and get off at Idzumo station where a short spur line leads to the shrine area. If you stop over in Matsue, there is also a little "puddle-jumper" train from Matsue city to Idzumo Shrine, about 40 kilometers. You can easily walk from either terminus to the shrine, down the gauntlet of hotels and gift shops.
More details:
From Kyoto: There are about five express trains a day (called
"Super Hakuto") from Kyoto to Tottori and Kurayoshi, starting about
7am and 9:50am and taking three hours. The 9:50 train connects in
Tottori with another express which gets you to Idzumo about 3:40pm.
Otherwise, you're changing more trains at Kinosaki or Yonago, and
taking slower trains. If you want to get an early taxi, the overnight
Idzumo express from Tokyo stops in Kyoto before 4am and continues
direct to Idzumo. It can be much faster to take the bullet train to
Okayama instead, see under Osaka, below.
From Osaka, Kobe: There is an express train from Osaka to Tottori about 9am, taking over four hours. It's easier to get down to Okayama/Kurashiki (especially on the bullet train), and then take the Hakubi line north to Yonago. There are seven express trains from Okayama direct to Matsue and Idzumo in the morning, taking about three hours. If you take the bullet train from Osaka or Kobe to Okayama, the total time on this route is only about 4 hours and you can make good connections. To save money, you can take the 7:20am regular express from Osaka to Okayama taking over two hours (versus 1 hour on the bullet train), adding over an hour to the trip; this train stops in Kobe twenty minutes later. This is the only fast train on this route, if you leave later, you'll be wandering around changing trains.
There are even a couple of overnight trains(!) from Tokyo Station which terminate at Idzumo. "The Idzumo" leaves around 9pm, goes via Kyoto and arrives at Idzumo at 10:45 the next morning. "The Idzumo Sunrise" leaves Tokyo about 10:20pm, goes via Okayama, and arrives at Idzumo about 10am. Sleepers available. Again, taking the bullet train from Tokyo to Okayama and catching an express to Idzumo will be much faster.
Staying:
We were at Idzumo during the week, in the off-season. We just followed the signs toward the shrine and had no trouble finding a room in one of the many tourist hotels that line the route. I don't seem to have written down the name of the place. Even if you are staying in Matsue, consider moving to Idzumo for the quiet evening after dinner and early morning around the shrine grounds. The closer you stay to the shrine, the better. Or arrive at Idzumo first, on the afternoon of your first day. Then (having booked your place in Matsue for the next night), you could spend the whole evening and morning around the shrine, take a few hours in the afternoon to explore the nearby coast, and get to Matsue in time for dinner.
Sekigane (seki-GA-ne) is a tiny little hot-springs village
resting against the coastal mountains just south of the Japan Sea
coast, with a view to nearby
).
To see:
At the end of town is a pleasant walk up through bamboo groves to Kamei Park, a hill forested with azalea bushes, ending at an enclosed lookout point on the hilltop. Back in "town", toward the end of the road, there is a little old indoor public bath house which is free, like the hot water. Visit the little shrine and you've seen the place. Just relax and enjoy the baths and the fine food at your inn.
Getting there:
Take the San-In Main Line along the Japan Sea coast and get off at Kurayoshi, between Matsue and Tottori city. From there you can get a bus up to Sekigane; there is a bus every 30 to 40 minutes right up to 9:30pm, and it takes about 35 minutes. Ask at the station which bus to take, and it drops you at the turnoff to Sekigane. You walk a few hundred yards up the road to the little town. There is an express train from Kyoto at 9:50am terminating at Kurayoshi about three and a half hours later. There are two more in the afternoon.
Staying:
There are just a handful of ryokans, but they should have rooms
available except during holidays. They are all of good quality and of
course serve lots of good food. We stayed at the Torikai
('chicken pot!') Ryokan (tel. (085845) 2121), and I can recommend it. Besides
the usual men's and women's baths in the building, they have a
'rotemburo' -- an open-air bath -- on the hillside above the
inn. There is a short covered walkway up to it and a lean-to roof
covers the small stone pools. The claim to fame of this inn is that
you can see Mt. Daisen from this bath, and it does have a nice view.
Mixed bathing outside, of course.
[Photo: Sekigane outdoor bath]
Plus:
We were also interested in visiting Mt. Daisen, and the woman at the ryokan called in and arranged for us to join a half-day bus tour from Kurayoshi going up to the mountain. The tour bus met us the next morning at the bus stop below Sekigane, took us all around the mountain, stopping at the temple near the top, and left us off at a station (Yonago or Hiezu) back on the San-In railway line.
Ki-no-saki is a famous old hot-spring resort near the Japan Sea coast. It is also not far from Kumihama, Tango Hanto, and Izushi, which are also mentioned here. I've never been there, but I gather it is quite a developed resort, with plenty of big hotels and night life. Still, it is a resort with an old history (from the 7th century) and I have been told that it is not a bad place, and has some atmosphere besides the discos and pachinko parlors. It's the kind of place businessmen take clients to entertain them. It won't be cheap, but what you get (food, baths, rooms) should be nice. There is a Kinosaki station on the San-In line, just north of Toyo-oka.
Kumi-hama is a beach area on the Japan Sea coast near the Tango
Peninsula. There is a nice large wide sand beach on the sea that can
get packed out in July and August. The rest of the time it's fairly
quiet, but it still has the atmosphere of a tourist resort. The beach
is at the entrance to the very large Kumihama Bay, which is really a
big lagoon with a narrow channel to the sea. Oysters are a big
industry in the lagoon. There are some hot-springs nearby, but it's
not really a hot-spring town. The lagoon is a nice setting and
nice big sand beaches like this
(click photo,
left, for larger image) are surprisingly uncommon in Japan.
Not bad, not great.
To See and Do:
Around the town, it's just the beach and the lagoon. In high summer, there's a little cruise boat on the lagoon (which you can use to get to and from the station). Of course you can also hire wind-surfers, surfboards (yes, some surf!) and various boats and canoes for the sea or lagoon. The big arch bridge across the channel is one of the touted attractions (yawn). About a mile east down coast road is the Kumihama Silver House, a small resort hotel for retired people. It has fancy communal baths (men's and women's), with nice views outside toward the sea, which are open to the public for a fee -- yes we tried them, and they were quite nice.
Getting there:
There is a Kumihama station on the San-In Main line, east of Toyo-oka. It's about 3 hours from Kyoto or Osaka. There is one direct express from Osaka to Kumihama leaving just before 8am and arriving after 11am. (This train stops in Fukuchiyama at 9:30 in case you want to connect from Kyoto or elsewhere.) Otherwise, you will take the Fukuchiyama line from either Osaka or Kyoto to Toyo-oka and change trains there. Kumihama is only two local stops (15 minutes) from Toyooka, but these trains only run about one per hour.
Kumihama station is at the bottom of the lagoon, and it's still a ways to get to the beach area. We went by car, so I can't say if there's a bus, but I would imagine there must be. In July and August, there's a boat across the lagoon to the beach. The next station is Tango Kanno, which is right near the side of the lagoon, and nearer the beach area, but there may be no buses along that route; a taxi would not be very far.
Staying:
The literature claims 1 hotel, 14 ryokans, and 102 minshukus. Many will be closed in the off-season. Almost all the inns are along the lagoon shore, a short walk across the "spit" to the sea beach. When it's not full, anyone can stay at the Kumihama Silver House, and the prices are reasonable for a nicer hotel. We stayed at the Matsukaze Minshuku on the lagoon, (tel (07728) 0407), about as simple and cheap as they come, but quite acceptable. Matsuda family; open all year.
Izushi (i-ZUshi) is another old Samurai castle town, with many
well-preserved historical buildings. It's much smaller than Hagi and,
although only three hours from Osaka, it is not very well known,
certainly among foreign tourists. In my humble opinion, Izushi is
a very charming and picturesque little place to visit, with
the old castle walls overlooking the town, many historical old
buildings, pleasant gardens, bamboo groves and temples. It's easy
to walk around and see everything, or you can hire a bike.
Izushi is mentioned in the Nihongi and the Kojiki as being the repository of the "Eight Deities of Idzushi" -- eight treasures (gems, mirror, scarves, pearls, swords) brought by a prince of Silla (Korea) named Ama no Hi-hoko, in the year 27 BC (by the early countings).
To see:
The walls, with several towers, are all that have been restored of the old castle on the hill, but it's worth the short walk. There is a nice old shrine there, and it is all in a pleasant grove of ancient trees. The castle is illuminated at night and can be seen from most of the town. It's quite pleasant and very quiet to stroll around town at night. Get a walking map at your inn or at the tourist office.
There is a unique old wooden clock tower in town
( photo
above), below the castle and
standing on the wall of the original outer moat of the castle town.
The Tourist Office is nearby. There are several working kilns beside
the Taniyama River that flows nearby. Other interesting historical
buildings include the Sakakura, a still functioning sake warehouse,
and the Meiji-kan museum. Several other buildings have historical
displays. There is also a huge old wooden lantern
(photo
left, clickable) on
the other side of the highway (the only street with traffic lights).
There are numerous shrines and temples all around the town, many with very nice gardens. At the far south end of town is Sukyo-ji temple, of the Jodo Buddhist sect; it is also called Takuan-ji, because the famous monk Takuan Soho (1573-1645) not only attended the temple as a young man growing up in Izushi, but is reputed (in Izushi, anyway) to have here invented the famous yellow pickles which bear his name. Hardly a meal is eaten in Japan without 'takuan', also called shinko. (Takuan later moved to Kyoto, became a famous Zen priest, wrote on Zen and swordsmanship, and instructed the famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto.) Upstream from the castle is Kyo-o-ji temple with another nice garden backed by a big forest of timber bamboo. A little farther out of town on the east side are the Izushi Jinja shrine and So-ji-ji temple, behind which is a walking trail up the hill, lined with little stone Jizo shrines.
We found a gorgeous private garden off one of the quiet side streets somewhere between Takuan-ji and the Meiji-kan. We saw a covered gate in a stone wall and a small wooden sign offering ceremonial tea for 500 yen. Through the open gate, we could see a lovely landscape garden, so we wandered in. The old gentleman who owns the place tends the gardens himself and lives in a small house on one side. For the advertised price he himself performed the tea ceremony for us in the garden's tea house, and we spent a couple of hours talking with him. So far, the city has not agreed to mention his garden in their tourist information, but it is an exceptional traditional garden, tended with loving care for generations.
Getting there:
Izushi (sometimes "Idzushi") is nestled in low mountains inland from Kinosaki On-sen on the Japan Sea coast, near the Tango Peninsula. It is not on a train line, but is only 30 minutes by bus from Toyo-oka city on the San-In Main line (just south of Kinosaki). It is also easily reached from Kobe or Osaka in about 3 hours by taking the Fukuchiyama Line north to the San-In line at Fukuchiyama, changing to the bus at Toyo-oka.
From Toyooka station buses leave every 20 to 40 minutes with Izushi as their final destination. They run until 7:30pm and take under 30 minutes. The first bus leaving Izushi is at 6:30am. The Izushi bus terminal is on the west end of Izushi town, but it's more convenient to get off at the Takuan-ji bus stop right in town. You can easily walk down to the bus terminal when you're ready to leave.
Staying:
We just got off the bus in town and asked at the first inn we came to. We stayed at the Shichi-mi-ya ryokan, just south of the highway from the "Takuan-ji" bus stop, across from the big wooden lantern. (tel. (079652) 2127.) It was a very pleasant if simple old place, and the people were very nice. Naturally there are several places to stay; if one is full, ask them to call around for you, or you can ask at the Tourist Office across from the clock tower.
Eating:
The specialty food of Izushi is 'Izushi zaru soba' noodles
(photo left, clickable).
Soba is a common brown buckwheat noodle; but here, besides
always being freshly hand-made, the noodles are served alone (zaru
soba) and come in five small dishes (much like the wanko
soba of the Tohoku region), with an accompanying dipping
sauce. The tradition is to dip an entire little dish-full into the
sauce and eat it at once. There are records kept of the champion soba
eaters (most dishes consumed). Best of all, most of the many Izushi
soba shops have been doing business for hundreds of years,
and are themselves real historical experiences! A great lunch idea.
This small peninsula is not served by rail and is a nice drive along some fine mountainous sea coast. You pass small villages and wild monkeys are seen in the densely forested hills. There are a few simple lodgings in some of the villages (Ine, for example) if you want to stay, but it only takes a couple of hours to drive leisurely around the peninsula. You can make a round trip by driving from Kumihama to Mineyama, Omiya, and Miyazu (to see Ama no Hashidate). Along this route you can see some other minor sights:
There is small shrine on a hill south of Omiya (
) which was the setting for the Noh play Ha-Goromo. There's a small sign at the turn-off (to the right if you're going south) and you drive a few miles to it. The shrine is dilapidating, so unless you like Noh history or lost shrines, it's not much.
Just south down the main road from the shrine turnoff is a small Zen temple which contains some famous painted fusuma (paper sliding doors). It's a nice little spot and the old priest is a nice character. It's on the road.
Omiya is a center of the dye industry for which this area has long been famous. The dyes from here are called "Tango chirimen", and are used in the best silk kimonos. On the main road at the crossroads in Omiya is a shop called Tsuboriyu, selling materials painted with Tango chirimen. We stopped in and they were very nice to show us a number of bolts of very expensive painted silk. We also bought as gifts some cheaper scarves, furoshiki, and boxes covered in dyed material (synthetic). Beautiful stuff.
As long as you're in the area, you owe it to your Japanese friends to have visited Ama no Hashidate. It is a sand-spit about 3 kilometers long, reaching into the Japan Sea. You get there from Miyazu, at the base of the Tango Peninsula, on the San-In Main line. The spit is forested loosely in pine and the walking trail down it is dotted with several old shrines. It can be quite a pleasant walk, unless there are several thousand school kids along with you. Few people walk more than the first kilometer or so, but that's also the nicest part.
Some famous historical Samurai claimed that when viewed from between your legs, the little peninsula "appears to be suspended in mid air". Hence the name, which means something like, "the standing bridge to Heaven" (ama no hashi-DA-te). And hence, at any one time, about half of the tourists are bending over with their heads between their legs. Quaint.
Ama no Hashidate is one of the official Big Three Most Scenic Spots in Japan -- along with Miyajima (near Hiroshima, see below) and Matsushima (near Sendai) -- and the little town is pretty touristy, even when it's not crowded. Every school kid and granny must visit it at least once. I would not recommend staying there if you can get out to a quieter spot. You can take a boat tour around the little spit, and there is also a cable car ride up an adjacent hill; neither of them seemed very enticing to us at the time. But, yes, the spit was nice.
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