Drive into the rice fields of southern Awaji and you will see it from a kilometer away — a single torii, 21.7 meters tall, painted the deep vermilion of cinnabar, standing alone above the green paddies. It is counted among the three great torii of Japan, alongside Heian Jingu in Kyoto and Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima. And it marks, according to one of three long-standing local traditions, the place where Japan began.
What happened here
The Kojiki opens with two gods, Izanagi and Izanami, standing on the floating bridge of heaven. They lower a jeweled spear into the formless ocean below, stir it, and lift it. As droplets fall back from the tip of the spear, the first one congeals into an island.
The island is called Onogoro — “the self-curdled” — because no one made it. It made itself, from the brine that fell from the spear.
The two gods descend onto Onogoro. They build a pillar, walk around it in opposite directions, meet on the far side, marry, and begin the work of bearing the rest of Japan. Awaji is the first child. Then Shikoku. Then the Oki islands. Then Kyushu. Then Honshu. Eight islands in all — the original archipelago, the Oyashima.
Onokoro Jinja stands at the place that local tradition has identified, for many centuries, as Onogoro itself.
What you’ll actually see
The shrine grounds themselves are quiet. A small main hall sits at the foot of the great torii, dedicated to Izanagi and Izanami as the parents of Japan, with Kukurihime enshrined alongside them. The honden is set on a slight rise reached by a short flight of stone steps, and behind it lies a smaller subsidiary shrine to the eight million gods born from the parent deities.
What dominates the experience is the torii. Stand directly beneath it and look up — its scale is hard to comprehend until you do. Painted every few decades to maintain the deep vermilion, it is visible from the surrounding hills, from passing trains, from the parking lot a quarter-kilometer away. It is the largest single object on this part of the island.
Three things to look for
- The torii’s base — stand directly beneath the structure to feel its full scale; the proportions only make sense up close.
- The Sekirei-ishi (鶺鴒石) — a pair of stones near the main hall said to mark the spot where wagtails first showed Izanagi and Izanami how to mate. Two cords, one red and one white, are tied between the stones; visitors hold them while praying for marriage, fertility, or strengthened bonds.
- The Sazare-ishi (細石) — a composite stone displayed in the precinct, the same kind of stone referenced in Japan’s national anthem as the symbol of accumulated time.
How it fits the trail
This is one of three places on Awaji that contend for the identity of Onogoro. The others are Eshima, an offshore islet on the north coast, and Nushima, an inhabited island off the south coast. None of the three can be proven; all three have local traditions stretching back centuries. Awaji as a whole is the answer; the question of where exactly on Awaji is left to the visitor.
If you are walking the full Trail, this is your central inland stop on Awaji. The torii frames the moment the gods first set foot on land. Everything that comes afterward — Izanagi Jingu, the islands of Shikoku and Honshu, the descent of Amaterasu’s grandson — flows from the act commemorated here.
Stand under the torii. Look at the rice paddies. This is, by one telling, the first piece of Japan.