Kunikatanushi Shrine

Kunikatanushi Shrine was founded in 811 and is one of the twenty-four shrines on the island listed in the tenth-century register of shrines, and one of the seven great shrines of Iki.

The shrine is dedicated to Sukunahikona, a very small god who is said to have made the land and to have healed sickness. The name Kunikatanushi, "lord of half the land", comes from the story that he and Okuninushi divided the country between them and governed it in two parts.

Sugawara no Michizane is enshrined alongside him. Michizane was a scholar and minister of the ninth century who came to be worshipped after his death as the god of learning, and shrines that hold him are known as Tenmangu, so this one is also called Kokubu Tenmangu. People come to it for success in study as well as for good harvests, health and long life.

The court sent offerings to it every year, and after the lords of Hirado took Iki they came to it themselves or sent a representative. The buildings have been renewed many times since the sixteenth century.

Three small torii stand in the grounds. Known as the wish-making torii, each is for a different wish, among them protection from misfortune, passing exams and good business, and the custom is to pass through them on the day of the annual festival.

There is also a stone figure known as the nade-kozo, the boy who is rubbed. Anyone with a complaint touches the same part of the figure as the part that troubles them, and their own body in turn, which is said to make it better.