Tucked away against the hill is the Suga Shrine in the little fishing village of Matsubara.
The shrine grounds were being used as a car park, and the place did not look like a very busy shrine.
It has a fairly large honden though, leading me to think it was a more important shrine in earlier days.
The Kami enshrined in Suga shrines are Susano and his wife Kushinada. Within the shrine grounds are smaller secondary shrines, Hachiman, Atago, and a Mishima shrine enshrining Oyamazumi.
The original Suga shrine is located in the mountains of Izumo, and is believed to be the site of the "palace" built by Susano after he slew the serpent Yamata no Orochi and married Kushinada. Susano then wrote a poem....
Many clouds rise up
clouds appear to form a fence
holding this couple;
They form layers of a fence
Oh, the layers of that fence.
This is considered to be the first example of a Tanka in Japanese history.
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That is a beautiful poem. I am fascinated by their culture and all the historical stories behind every place in Japan. As I read about it I want to go there more and more.
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