Amano Iwato Shrine

Amano Iwato Shrine stands at Iwato in Takachiho, in the north of Miyazaki Prefecture. What it worships is a cave in the cliff on the far side of the gorge, held to be the one the sun goddess shut herself into.

The story

In the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, Amaterasu withdrew into a cave to escape the violence of her brother Susanoo. The sun went with her, crops failed and sickness spread. The other gods gathered on the riverbed nearby to decide what to do.

They tried first with long-crowing birds, the ancestors of the cockerel, whose call brings the sun up. The door stayed shut. Then Ame-no-Uzume danced with a branch in her hand while the rest made an uproar, and Amaterasu, wondering how anyone could be enjoying themselves in the dark, opened the door to look. The gods held up a mirror. Taking her own reflection for a finer god than herself, she leaned out for a better view, and at that moment Omoikane took her hand while Tajikarao pulled the door wide.

The two halls

The shrine is in two parts, facing each other across the Iwato River. The West Hongu looks directly at the cave, and behind its hall of worship is a platform from which the cave can be seen. Visitors are taken there by a priest rather than going alone.

The East Hongu stands on the other bank, on the ground where Amaterasu is said to have been settled after she was brought out of the cave.

Kagura

The dances known as Iwato kagura, thirty-three in number, have been handed down within the shrine's priestly families. Parishioners chosen by the shrine learn them and perform them at its grand festivals in May and September. Around the eleventh month of the old lunar calendar they are danced through the night in parishioners' homes, with the opening of the rock door near the end. The full set takes about sixteen hours. At the shrine, a selection of four of the dances, about 45 minutes long, can be booked in advance.