Yomotsu Hirasaka
The slope where Izanagi sealed the dead from the living with a great rock. There is no shrine here, no shimenawa, no famous tree. Just three boulders, a wooden plaque, and an old story.
-
-
Miho Jinja
Where Okuninushi’s son agreed to the handover of the country by turning his fishing boat upside down on the water. Twice a day, the priests still play music that exists nowhere else.
-
Suga Jinja
“The first palace in Japan.” After killing the eight-headed serpent, Susanoo arrived at this valley, said “Suga-suga-shi” — refreshing, clear — and built his home. The country’s first private residence was set here.
-
Susa Jinja
The mountain shrine where Susanoo, at the end of his days, planted his staff and declared, “This is the land of my soul.” A 1,200-year-old camphor still grows beside the main hall.
-
Yaegaki Jinja
Where Susanoo hid his bride from the eight-headed serpent — and where, after slaying it, he composed the oldest poem in Japanese. The shrine’s mirror pond still answers questions about love.
-
Izumo Taisha
The grand shrine of Izumo, where Okuninushi gave up the visible world for a hall that has stood, in various forms, for over a thousand years. Once a year, every god in Japan comes to stay.
-
Kamitategami-iwa
A 30-meter sea stack on Nushima’s southern coast, claimed by tradition to be the very pillar around which Izanagi and Izanami walked at the start of creation.
-
Naruto Strait & Fukura Port
The strait between Awaji and Shikoku, where the largest whirlpools in the world form on the spring tides — the same stirring of the ocean the kuni-umi describes, still continuing.
-
Nushima
A small inhabited island ten minutes by ferry from southern Awaji, where the local tradition holds — without ambiguity — that this is Onogoro itself.
-
Iwaya Harbor
The harbor where most travelers arrive on Awaji from the mainland. Not a shrine, but a threshold — the literal beginning of the Kojiki Trail.