The Usa Shrine, built in the 8th century, is located at the base of the Kunisaki Peninsula. It is the main shrine among thousands of shrines across Japan dedicated to Hachiman, the god of archery and war, who has also been identified with the legendary 15th emperor of Japan, Emperor Ojin. The shrine had a big influence on the Kunisaki Peninsula's culture and shaped the local religion of mountain-worship. The shrine occupies a large compound which includes an upper shrine complex, a lower shrine complex, a treasure hall, a couple of ponds and several auxiliary buildings.
Its main hall is a designated national treasure and the prototype of the Hachiman-zukuri style of shrine architecture. Kumano Nachi Taisha is part of a large complex of neighboring religious sites that exemplify the fusion of Buddhist and Shinto influences peculiar to the Kumano region. The site also boasts the tallest waterfall in Japan. Directly beside the shrine is the Buddhist temple Seigantoji. The shrine and the temple are both impressive, and among the buildings of Seigantoji there is a three-story pagoda.
You can find peace and serenity in this place. Before entering a shrine, there is a torii gate, signifying entrance into a holy place. It is customary and respectful to bow before going through the gate, and to purify oneself at the purification fountain. It is considered rude to walk in front of someone who is praying, so please go around or wait until they are done. Wear proper clothing and shoes. In some shrines photographs are prohibited. Please read the signs carefully.
While a visit to one of the shrines in Japan is a must, visiting a shrine without a professional is rather a waste of time and effort. Visiting one of the shrines in Japan with Asia Highlights, you will learn about and experience Japan's religions, shrines and temples. We will help you with ticketing, explaining the history of the shrines, visitor-etiquette and much more, to ensure your visit is remarkable and hassle-free.
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The shrine is known worldwide for its iconic "floating" torii gate. They are often located in the landscape in such a way as to emphasise their connection to the natural world, and can include sacred groves of trees, and streams. Various symbolic structures, such as torii gates and shimenawa ropes, are used to separate the shrine from the rest of the world.
Some major shrines have a national rather than a local role, and are visited by millions of people from across Japan at major festivals.
Japanese people don't visit shrines on a particular day each week. People go to the shrine at festival times, and at other times when they feel like doing so. Japanese often visit the local shrine when they want the local kami to do them a favour such as good exam results, a good outcome to a surgical operation for a relative, and so on.
Many Shinto shrines are places of intense calm with beautiful gardens. They possess a deeply spiritual atmosphere, as Jean Herbert has written The best explanation I can offer is that the Shinto shrine is a visible and ever-active expression of the factual kinship - in the most literal sense of the word - which exists between individual man and the whole earth, celestial bodies and deities, whatever name they be given.
When entering it, one inevitably becomes more or less conscious of that blood-relation, and the realisation of it throws into the background all feelings of anxiety, antagonism, loneliness, discouragement, as when a child comes to rest on its mother's lap. A feeling of almost palpable peace and security falls upon the visitor as he proceeds further into the holy enclosure, and to those unready for it, it comes as a shock. Epithets such as kogoshi god-like and kami-sabi divinely serene seem fully justified.
Shrines are made of natural materials cypress wood is very common and are designed to provide a home for the particular kami to whom they are dedicated. A shrine is not restricted to a single kami.
Although shrines are a focus for kami and their devotees, it is very rare for shrines to contain statues of kami. Shrines do often include statues of animals such as foxes or horses - these are not statues of the kami but of animals that serve the kami in various ways.
The connection between the shrine and the natural world is emphasised by the way many of the objects within a shrine are made with as little human effort as possible so that their natural origins remain visible. The design of the shrine garden is intended to create a deep sense of the spiritual, and of the harmony between humanity and the natural world. The entrances to shrines are marked by torii gates, made of wood and painted orange or black.
The gates are actually arches with two uprights and two crossbars, and symbolise the boundary between the secular everyday world and the infinite world of the kami. Because there are no actual gates within the torii arch a shrine is always open. There is often no wall or fence associated with the gates. Torii shrine gate The torii is a gate that stands at the entrance to the sacred area in and around the shrine.
It is your signal that you are about to enter hallowed space. Shimenawa sacred rope The shimenawa is a special rope tied around or across an object or space to denote its sanctity or purity.
Before proceeding to the haiden , worshippers stop here to wash their hands and rinse their mouths in an act of ritual purification. These komainu , as the statues are known, are guardian figures believed to protect the space around the kami from evil.
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