A shrine built out over the tide on Miyajima: the warlord who rebuilt it, the fires and storms it survived, and a close look at how its great sea gate is built, and why it doesn't float.
At high tide at Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, the sea rises almost to the floor of its halls and the whole complex appears to float. At low tide the water drains away from beneath the buildings and the foundations that hold them up are left exposed. The shrine stands on the island of Itsukushima, better known as Miyajima, in Hiroshima Bay on Japan's Seto Inland Sea. Its halls are sited on the shore where the tide comes and goes, joined by roofed corridors, with the forested slopes of Mount Misen, about 530 metres high, rising behind. A great vermilion torii stands in the water in front.
The island and the warlord
The island was regarded as sacred from early times, and at first people worshipped it and Mount Misen from a distance. The shrine's own tradition dates its founding to 593, though its existence is confirmed only from 811. In the Heian period it became known as a sacred shrine in Aki Province.
Its great patron arrived in the twelfth century. Taira no Kiyomori, head of the Taira warrior clan, had been governor of Aki, and his victories in the Hogen and Heiji civil wars raised him, and the provincial warrior class with him, to supreme power. At the height of Taira power, members of the clan copied Buddhist sutras by hand and Kiyomori dedicated the set to the shrine, with a prayer in his own handwriting. It runs to 33 scrolls on decorated paper.
In 1168 a shrine priest, Saeki Kagehiro, reported to the imperial court that the main buildings had been rebuilt. The new shrine was larger, and some roofs changed from wooden shingles to Japanese cypress bark. The rebuilding is credited to Kiyomori, who is believed to have financed it, and the halls were laid out in the style of the aristocratic residences of the day. Court dances brought from Kyoto, then the capital, have been performed at the shrine since the twelfth century on a square stage in front of the main hall, and they still are.
Fire, wind and tide
Fire destroyed the main buildings in 1207. They were rebuilt by 1215 and burned again in 1223, and that reconstruction dragged on until 1241. The major buildings standing today date from it, and because the builders kept the earlier style, the thirteenth-century halls still reflect the shrine of the twelfth.
A wide wooden deck links the East and West Corridors, and the corridor floorboards are laid with gaps so that at high tide seawater can rise through them, easing the pressure on the floor. Wind and floods damaged the shrine often, and leaders and local figures restored it again and again. In the Muromachi period national support was cut off, yet building went on, and a five-storey pagoda went up in 1407. By the mid-Edo period the island was counted among Japan's Three Most Scenic Places, with Matsushima and Amanohashidate. In 1868 the government's separation of Shinto and Buddhism led to the destruction of many of the island's Buddhist buildings.
The great gate, up close
The great torii collapsed often and was rebuilt many times. The present gate went up in 1875. It stands about 16.6 metres tall, and its two main pillars are natural camphor trunks, each about 9.9 metres around. When the gate was rebuilt in 1547 it gained supporting posts, and the current gate keeps that form: each main pillar has a smaller cedar trunk in front of it and another behind, six legs in all. Each side post is tied to its main pillar by two horizontal beams, fixed with wedges where they meet the pillars.
Across the top run two great beams, one on the other, curving upward toward their ends; the uppermost is about 24 metres long. They are built as hollow boxes and packed with stone. Above them sits a small roof of cypress bark, and lower down a straight tie beam runs between the main pillars, with a framed name plaque in the middle. The whole gate is painted vermilion and is protected as an Important Cultural Property. The gate is not embedded in the seabed; it stands by its own weight, part of which is the stone in its top beams, and at low tide people can walk across the sand to its feet.
Through the twentieth century, rot at the base of the pillars led to repeated major repairs. Around 1950 a large piece was cut from the foot of a main pillar, wood that had stood in the sea for about seventy-five years, and wood-boring sea creatures have left the pillar bases pitted with small holes.
Why it's on the list
UNESCO inscribed Itsukushima Shinto Shrine in 1996 and describes the island as a holy place of Shinto since the earliest times. It points to the shrine on the sea with mountains behind, an arrangement that became a Japanese standard of scenic beauty and reflects how Japan's spiritual culture developed. It calls the shrine an outstanding work of architecture and landscape joining human-made and natural elements, and an outstanding example of ancient shrine architecture set into its landscape. The buildings have been rebuilt twice, faithfully, preserving late twelfth and early thirteenth-century styles, with replacements in matching materials and techniques. The site also helps in understanding Shinto, a religion rooted in the worship of nature.
At high tide at one Japanese shrine, the sea rises almost to the floor of its halls, and the whole complex seems to float. At low tide the water drains away, and the foundations beneath the buildings are laid bare on the sand.
This is Ours to Keep. I'm Mira, and today: Itsukushima Shinto Shrine. I'm an AI voice; the facts come from official records and checked sources.
The island and the warlord
The shrine stands on Itsukushima, an island better known as Miyajima, in Hiroshima Bay on Japan's Seto Inland Sea. Its halls sit out over the shore, where the tide comes and goes, and roofed corridors join them together. Behind them, forested slopes climb towards Mount Misen, about five hundred and thirty metres high. Out in the water in front stands a great vermilion gate, a torii.
The island was sacred long before there were halls on the water. At first, people worshipped the island and its mountain from a distance. The shrine's own tradition dates its founding to the year 593. Other records confirm that it existed only from 811. In the centuries that followed, it became known as a sacred shrine across Aki Province, the region around the island.
Its great patron arrived in the twelfth century. Taira no Kiyomori was the head of a warrior clan, and he had served as governor of Aki. His victories in two civil wars, the Hogen and the Heiji, carried him, and the warrior class he came from, to supreme power. He came to the shrine to worship at important moments in his political life. At the height of the clan's power, members of the Taira copied Buddhist sutras by hand, and Kiyomori had the set given to the shrine. The set runs to thirty-three scrolls of decorated paper, and it includes a prayer in Kiyomori's own handwriting.
In 1168, a shrine priest named Saeki Kagehiro reported to the imperial court that the main buildings had been rebuilt. The new shrine was larger than the old one. Some of its roofs were changed from wooden shingles to the bark of Japanese cypress. Kiyomori paid for the work, and the halls were laid out in the style of the aristocratic mansions of his day.
The shrine took on the arts of the capital as well. Court dances brought from Kyoto have been performed here since the twelfth century, on a square stage in front of the main hall. They are still danced there today.
Kiyomori did not see his clan's fall. He died in 1181. Four years later, in 1185, the Taira were defeated at sea at Dan-no-ura, on the same Inland Sea that laps under the shrine.
Fire, wind and tide
Kiyomori's buildings did not last either. Fire destroyed the main halls in 1207. They were rebuilt eight years later, and in 1223 they burned again. This time the work dragged on, and it was not finished until 1241. The major buildings standing today date from that rebuilding. Twenty of the shrine's buildings and structures are now protected by Japan as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. The builders kept to the old aristocratic style, so the thirteenth-century halls still show the shrine as it was laid out in the twelfth.
The main halls face the sea, and the great gate stands out in the water in front of them. At low tide, the foundations that hold the halls up stand exposed, with the water drained away from beneath them. A wide wooden deck links the two corridors, one running east and the other west. The corridor floorboards are laid with small gaps between them. At high tide, the sea can rise up through those gaps, and that eases the pressure of the waves on the floor.
Building on the shore had a price. Wind and floods damaged the shrine again and again, and rulers and local patrons paid again and again to restore it. Its patrons changed over time. Under the Kamakura shoguns the shrine had the government as its patron, but in the Muromachi period that national support was cut off. Building went on even so. A five-storey pagoda went up in 1407, a two-storey pagoda in 1523, and a new shrine hall in 1587. By the late Muromachi period a market had opened on the island, and a town grew up around it. By the middle of the Edo period, the island was counted among Japan's three most scenic places, alongside Matsushima and Amanohashidate. Then, in 1868, a new government ordered Shinto and Buddhism to be separated, and many of the island's Buddhist buildings were destroyed.
The great gate had the hardest time of all. Standing out in the wind and the waves, it collapsed often and had to be rebuilt many times. In 1547, the rebuilders gave it extra supporting posts. The gate that stands in the bay today went up in 1875.
Up close
So let's look closely at that gate, from the ground up. It stands about sixteen and a half metres tall. Its two main pillars are natural tree trunks, and the wood is camphor. They are thick, too. Each main pillar measures nearly ten metres around.
Until 1547, the gate stood on its two main pillars alone. The extra posts added that year are still part of the design. Each main pillar has a smaller post in front of it and another behind it. These smaller posts are natural trunks as well, but of cedar. That gives the gate six legs in all, and the gate of 1875 keeps the six-legged form first used in 1547. This type of gate is called a ryobu torii, and one of its other names means four-legged. Each smaller post is tied to its main pillar by two horizontal beams, one above the other. Where those beams fit into the pillars, wooden wedges are driven in to lock the joints tight.
Now look up. Across the top run the gate's great beams, one laid on another, and the uppermost is about twenty-four metres long. Both curve gently upward toward their ends. These beams are not solid timber. They are built as hollow boxes, and they are packed with stones. Above them sits a little roof of cypress bark, the material that replaced wooden shingles on some of the shrine's roofs back in 1168. Lower down, a straight tie beam runs between the two main pillars. In the middle, between it and the top beams, hangs a framed name plaque. The whole gate is painted vermilion, and Japan protects it as an Important Cultural Property in its own right.
Down at the bottom, the pillars stand in the sea. Over the twentieth century, rot at the base of the pillars led to one major repair after another. Around 1950, during one of those repairs, a large piece was cut away from the foot of a main pillar. By then that wood had stood in the sea for about seventy-five years. Wood-boring sea creatures have attacked the pillar bases too, leaving them pitted with small holes.
Why it's on the list
So why is it on the list? UNESCO describes the island as a holy place of Shinto since the earliest times, and it points first to the setting. The shrine sits on the sea, with forested mountains rising behind it, and that arrangement of shrine, sea and mountain became a Japanese standard of scenic beauty. UNESCO calls the shrine an outstanding work of architecture and landscape, one that joins human-made and natural elements, with halls modelled on the aristocratic homes of their period. It also sees in the shrine a record of how Japan's spiritual culture developed. It describes the buildings as outstanding examples of ancient shrine architecture fitted into the landscape. They have been rebuilt twice, faithfully each time, so they still preserve the styles of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Where materials have had to be replaced, the replacements match the originals in material and technique. And UNESCO says the site helps us understand Shinto, a religion with its roots in the worship of nature. Itsukushima Shinto Shrine was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996.
The surprise
From the shore at high tide, it is easy to believe that the great gate floats on the water, or that its pillars must be sunk deep into the seabed to survive the waves. Neither is true. Its pillars are not sunk into the seabed, and the gate stays upright under its own weight. Part of that weight is the stone packed inside its top beams. It has stood this way since 1875. And when the tide goes out, people can walk across the sand right up to its feet.
Tomorrow, we stay in Japan and go from a gate weighed down with stone to something far lighter: washi, the craft of making paper by hand.
