Itsukushima Shrine

Background

Founded in 593 and expanded to its present scale by Taira no Kiyomori in the Heian period. Its vermilion halls are built over the water and seem to float on the waves at high tide, while at low tide you can walk to the foot of the Great Torii and touch its thousand-year-old timber — one shrine, two faces in a day. Mount Misen's primeval forest behind the shrine is a sacred mountain; inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1996, 'Aki no Miyajima' is one of the Three Views of Japan with Amanohashidate and Matsushima.

Local customs

• Worship etiquette is as at any shrine
• if you walk to the Great Torii at low tide, don't climb it
• the island's deer are wild — don't feed them human food.

Religion & beliefs

• Shinto, honouring the three Munakata goddesses
• the whole island is regarded as sacred, and historically birth, illness and death were once forbidden on the island — to this day most islanders are buried on the opposite shore
• please come with reverence.

Travel tips

• High and low tide times vary daily, so check a tide table before you go — both faces are worth seeing. Admission is about JPY 300
• the autumn-leaves season (mid-to-late November) is most beautiful
• about 1 hour from Hiroshima by train and ferry
• combine with Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.