The Land of Myths Where Deities Gather

Izumo Taisha

(Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture)

【Kami-ari-zuki（神在月）】 refers to October in the Izumo region. It literally means “the month when the deities are present. In contrast, other regions of Japan call October “the month when the deities are not present.” What does this mean?

All the deities from across Japan gather at Izumo Taisha in October. During this time, they are absent from their home shrines. So if you pray at your local shrine, there may be no gods to hear your wishes, as they are all traveling to Izumo. The deities hold divine meetings to discuss various matters, such as matchmaking and the harvest for the coming year. To accommodate deities from all over Japan, the shrine even has special lodgings for them beside the main building of the shrine.

Izumo Taisha, one of Japan's oldest shrines, is nestled in a region steeped in ancient mythology. The shrine's grounds are tranquil and radiate a profound sense of solemnity. While the exact date of its founding remains unknown, its origins are mentioned in the Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), Japan's oldest historical text, compiled in 712. The story takes place in the mythological age, before the reign of the first emperor.

The goddess of the sun (Amaterasu Ōmikami), the supreme deity of the Shinto pantheon, declared that her son should rule this land and sent a deity to take control. However, the deity sided with the earthly deity who ruled the land and remained there. She then sent another deity, but he too took their side and never returned. She dispatched a third deity, the god of thunder and the sword. He defeated the two sons of the earthly deity who finally agreed to transfer their land to the goddess.

In return, she built a shrine for the earthly deity (Ōkuninushi) on this land. It is said that in ancient times, the shrine was as tall as 96 meters, equivalent to a 30-story building. The structure resembled a wooden stilt house, with the shrine elevated on thick tall pillars and accessed by long stairways. By the 9th century, its height had been reduced to 48 meters, still making it the tallest building in Japan at the time. The current building, constructed in 1778, stands at 24 meters tall. It has been refurbished every 60 years to maintain its wooden building.

In 1983, an extraordinary archaeological discovery was made at the Kojindani site, located 16 kilometers east of Izumo Taisha, where 358 bronze swords were unearthed. This finding was not only the largest number of bronze swords ever excavated from a single site but also exceeded the total number previously discovered throughout Japan.

The swords suggest that something significant existed in the Izumo region in ancient times. The myths may, in fact, be true stories of an unknown history. The swords are now displayed at the Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo, located next to the shrine.

Please visit the official website Izumo Taisha and Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo.