NINETY-NINE SACRED SHRINES
日本語It started in high school. The day I, on impulse, walked under the torii of Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka.
I had no particular faith. But by the time I had walked the full sandō, something inside me had become, definitely, lighter. That single sensation has stayed at the bottom of my life ever since.
Decades later, I made up my mind: I will visit every Ichinomiya in Japan, on my own feet. The decision came to me in front of the great torii of Hokkaido Jingu.
SpiritualAway is not a project I started for others.
Each visit, my mind and body grow lighter, one breath at a time. I wanted to taste that sense of cleansing more deeply. That was the only motive.
Especially the early-morning sandō, before the crowds — that is something else. The crunch of gravel, the rustle of distant leaves, a single bird's call. As I walk and listen, the small noises that filled my head the day before quietly, slowly, untie themselves.
I have now visited about half of the ninety-nine. Walking the rest is the quiet pleasure of the years to come.
I still make a monthly pilgrimage to Samukawa Jinja in my home prefecture of Kanagawa, without fail. Most recently, I walked the sandō of Komagata Jinja in Iwate, and Aso Jinja in Kumamoto.
At every shrine, the number of travelers from abroad is rising, year by year. Watching them clasp their hands quietly before the worship hall, I feel — quietly, but with certainty — that the time to open this map to the world is now.
I want visitors from around the world to know this stillness, on the early-morning sandō. This small map is for that.
Three convictions run through this project.
Japan has more than eighty thousand shrines. Why narrow this map down to the ninety-nine Ichinomiya?
Because the Ichinomiya are not "places chosen by chance."
A thousand years ago, when Japan was divided into more than sixty provinces, the official sent from the imperial court to a province would, upon arriving, first visit the highest-ranking shrine of that land. That is the Ichinomiya.
In other words, the Ichinomiya are ninety-nine sacred coordinates placed across Japan — selected by the people of a thousand years ago, each as the spiritual heart of its land.
For first-time visitors, three paths.
This site is only the beginning.
Next is the smartphone app — a companion for your pilgrimage, with audio guides that play even offline.