Tsuno Jinja

Tsuno Jinja.

On the Pacific coast of Miyazaki Prefecture, in a region thick with the oldest layers of Japanese mythology, sits a shrine remembered as the place where, before becoming the founding emperor of Japan, a young man stopped to pray.

According to the oldest chronicles, before the legendary Emperor Jimmu set out on his expedition to the eastern lands — the journey that would, in the mythological telling, establish the imperial line and the country itself — he came to this place and asked for the campaign's success.

His prayer here, in the mythological telling, was the first step of the founding of Japan.

What makes this shrine quietly remarkable is the geography. The Pacific Ocean is just a short distance away. The mountains rise inland, dense with forest, the same kind of landscape that, in the local stories, was the original home of the divine ancestors. Standing here, you can feel that the boundaries between mountain, sea, and sky still meet, perhaps more directly than anywhere else in Japan.

The annual festival, held on August 1st and 2nd, lasts deep into the night. Portable shrines are carried down to the beach, and the deity is, briefly, taken to meet the sea.

Standing in the shrine grounds, the salt smell drifts in from the east. The mountain forest stands behind. The young man who prayed here, in the old story, eventually became the first emperor.

Whatever you believe about the story, the geography is real, and was here for him too.

Some places are still close to the beginning of things.