Across from Hiroshima lies a mountainous island the Japanese revere as a god. So as not to wound its soil, the shrine was built over the sea, with a great red torii that seems to float when the tide comes in. For centuries it was forbidden to be born, to die and even to farm on the island. Twelve stops between the deer pier, the giant rice scoop, Hideyoshi's unfinished hall, the torii that stands by its own weight, the corridors over the water, the floating theatre stage, the warrior who made the shrine his clan's own, the temple of prayer wheels, the valley of maples, the flame that has burned for twelve hundred years and the street of residents who have no cemetery. Approximate audio duration: 18 minutes.
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Miyajima: la isla tan sagrada que no se podía nacer ni morir en ella
Frente a Hiroshima hay una isla montañosa que los japoneses veneran como un dios. Para no herir su suelo, el santuario se construyó sobre el mar, con un gran torii rojo que parece flotar cuando sube la marea. Durante siglos estuvo prohibido nacer, morir y hasta cultivar en la isla. Doce paradas entre el muelle de los ciervos, la cuchara de arroz gigante, el salón inacabado de Hideyoshi, el torii que se sostiene por su propio peso, los corredores sobre el agua, el escenario de teatro flotante, el guerrero que convirtió el santuario en el de su clan, el templo de las ruedas de oración, el valle de los arces, la llama que arde desde hace mil doscientos años y la calle de los vecinos que no tienen cementerio. Duración aproximada de audio: 18 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~18 min of audio · 7.13 km on foot (~1 h 45 min walking) · about 2 h 15 min in total
You have stepped off the ferry at Miyajima. Probably the first thing you saw was deer, waiting on the pier. As in Nara, they are considered messengers of the gods. But here feeding them is forbidden.
Miyajima means shrine island. Its official name is Itsukushima. It is only ten minutes by boat from the mainland, in Hiroshima Bay, and has a mountain of more than five hundred metres covered in forest.
Since ancient times the Japanese have seen this island not as a place where a god lives, but as the god itself. The mountain, the trees, the rocks: all of it was sacred.
That idea had practical …
2
The Giant Scoop and the Maple-Leaf Cake
You are on Omotesando, the pilgrims' road to the shrine. Souvenir shops, grilled oysters, the smell of freshly baked sweets. Look in a display case for an enormous wooden scoop, more than seven metres long.
It is a shakushi, a rice paddle. According to tradition, in the late eighteenth century a monk on the island taught the inhabitants to carve these paddles from local wood so they would have a trade. They became Miyajima's typical souvenir.
There is a play on words: in Japanese, the word for serving rice sounds like the word for taking or conquering. During the wars, soldiers passing throu…
3
The Hall Hideyoshi Never Finished
You are on the hill beside the red five-storey pagoda, from 1407. Next to it stands a huge, dark wooden hall open at the sides: the Senjokaku, the hall of a thousand tatami. In fact it has about eight hundred and fifty.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered it built in 1587 so that monks could read sutras for the soldiers killed in his wars. Hideyoshi died in 1598 and the work stopped. It was never finished.
Look: it has no painted ceiling and no doors on the facade. The beams are exposed. That unfinished look gives it a strange beauty.
This hill also has a bloody history. In 1555 a feudal lord, Sue H…
4
A Torii That Stands by Itself
There it is: the great red torii in the water, about two hundred metres from the shore. If the tide is high, it seems to float. If it is low, you can walk across the wet sand to its feet.
It is more than sixteen metres tall and weighs around sixty tonnes. The two main pillars are natural camphor trunks brought from other parts of Japan, because trees that big are very hard to find.
Most surprising of all: the torii is not buried in the seabed. It stands by its own weight. The box of the upper crossbeam is filled with stones to make it heavier and more stable against typhoons.
The torii mark…
5
A Shrine Over the Sea
Enter Itsukushima Shrine and walk along its red wooden corridors, suspended over the water. At high tide the whole complex seems to float. At low tide it sits on the sand, with crabs among the stilts.
Why build a shrine over the sea? Because the island itself was the god. Treading on its soil with foundations and buildings was an offence. So the shrine was built on the strip of shore that the tide covers and uncovers, between land and sea.
Look at the floorboards of the corridors: they have small gaps. When a big wave or a very high tide pushes the water up, it passes through the slits and d…
6
Theatre on the Waves
You are in front of the shrine's noh theatre stage. It is a roofed wooden platform built on stilts over the water. It is the only noh stage in Japan that stands over the sea.
It was donated in 1680 by the feudal lord of Hiroshima. Noh is Japan's oldest theatre still performed: actors in wooden masks, slow movements, chanting, flutes and drums.
Normally, large ceramic jars are placed beneath noh stages so that the floor resonates with the actors' steps. Here they are not needed: the water beneath does the job.
Every spring plays are performed on this stage as an offering to the gods. At high…
7
The Samurai Who Ruled the Court
You are in front of a small, quiet shrine among pines beside the sea. It is dedicated to Taira no Kiyomori, the man who gave Itsukushima Shrine the form it has today.
In the twelfth century Kiyomori was the first samurai to come to dominate the imperial court in Kyoto. He married his daughter to the emperor, and his grandson became emperor. His clan, the Taira, controlled Japan for some twenty years.
Kiyomori grew rich on maritime trade with China. The sea goddesses of Itsukushima became the protectors of his family. In 1168 he rebuilt the shrine in its present form, with the corridors over …
8
The Prayer Wheels
You are at Daisho-in, the island's most important Buddhist temple, at the foot of Mount Misen. Climb the stone steps and notice the handrail: there is a row of metal wheels with inscriptions.
They are prayer wheels. Each is engraved with a sacred text. It is said that turning them as you climb is equivalent to reading the sutra. Turn them by hand as you go up.
According to tradition the temple was founded in the year 806 by Kukai, one of the great monks of Japanese history and founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism. Kukai is said to have climbed Mount Misen to meditate.
All around the gr…
9
The Valley of Maples
You are in Momijidani, the valley of maples. A stream runs down between rocks, crossed by small red bridges. In autumn hundreds of maples turn red and orange, and the whole valley seems on fire.
This is the landscape that inspired the maple-leaf cakes you saw on the shopping street.
In 1945 a typhoon brought torrential rain and caused landslides that swept through this valley. Rocks and trunks came down the stream towards the village and the shrine.
Reconstruction followed a very Japanese approach: not concrete walls, but rearranging the stones and replanting trees so that the valley would …
10
The Flame That Has Burned for Twelve Hundred Years
You are on the summit of Mount Misen, more than five hundred metres above the sea. Look around: the Seto Inland Sea, dotted with islands, the Hiroshima coast, the ships. A Meiji-era prime minister is said to have declared this the finest view in Japan.
A little below the summit is a small wooden hall, the Reikado. Inside, on a hearth, a fire burns beneath a large iron pot.
According to tradition, Kukai lit that fire in the year 806, when he meditated on this mountain. And it has not gone out since. It is called the flame that is never extinguished.
Now the connection. In 1964, when Hiroshim…
11
The Island Without Crops
You are on Machiya-dori, a street parallel to the shopping street and much quieter. Two-storey wooden houses with latticework, small cafes, an art gallery in an old merchant's house. This is where the islanders live.
For centuries life on Miyajima had special rules. As the soil was sacred, farming was forbidden: the god's body could not be wounded with a plough. All food came from the mainland.
The inhabitants lived from the shrine, the pilgrims, fishing and crafts such as rice paddles.
Nor could blood be spilled. Shinto rules of purity were strict: blood, illness and death were sources of …
12
Leaving to Be Born, Leaving to Die
You are by the pier, looking across the sea towards the mainland. The ferries leave from here every few minutes. For centuries this crossing was more than a journey.
On Miyajima no one could be born. Childbirth involved blood, and blood was impure before the god. When a woman of the island was about to give birth, she was taken by boat to the mainland. She returned weeks later, once purified.
Nor could anyone die. When someone was gravely ill or close to death, they were moved across the water. The dead were buried on the mainland. That is why the island has no cemetery. And after a funeral,…
How long does the "Miyajima: the Island So Sacred No One Could Be Born or Die There" audio tour take?
It has about 18 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 7.13 km walking route (~1 h 45 min on foot). Plan roughly 2 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "Arriving on the Island of the Gods" (coordinates 34.3006, 132.3234). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Hatsukaichi (Miyajima) and pick "Miyajima: the Island So Sacred No One Could Be Born or Die There". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
