June 16, 1971: Hiroshima, Japan
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The last stop on my tour of southern Japan was Itsukushima, also known as Miyajima, a small island in Hiroshima Bay. It is known for its forests and ancient temples. Just offshore, the giant, orange Great Torii Gate is partially submerged at high tide. It marks the entrance to the Itsukushima Shrine, which was first built in the 12th century. Nearby, the Museum of History and Folklore has cultural artifacts in a 19th-century merchant's home.

Getting to Miyajima

I actually stayed in Hiroshima two nights, and I took my side trip to Miyajima on the second day I was there. As usual, my guidebook was very helpful, and had all the information I needed to get there and back. From Hiroshima central station, I took an express train about 15 miles southwest down the coast along Hiroshima Bay to the town of Miyajima-guchi. The 25-minute train ride cost less than a dollar.

From the train station, I walked just down the street to the dock for the ferry boat that would take me out to the island. The ferry was an incredible 15 cents each way (40 yen). I was on the ferry about 10 in the morning, and 10 minutes after I left the dock I was being deposited on the ferry dock on the island itself. Below is a high-level map of the island, and I can show you where my pictures were taken:

I took pictures in three general areas. First, I took some pictures in and around the port area which (at the time I visited) was also most of the town itself. (Not so today, as the entire area between the port and the shrine has been developed.) I also visited the Itsukushima Shrine, and you will see a number of pictures of it. Finally, I took the ropeway (cable car) to the top of Mt. Misen and the Shishiiwa Station and Observatory.

The Port and Town of Miyajima

The short ride over to Miyajima from the mainland Miyajima-guchi was very pleasant, reminding me of the trip we made across Lake Ashi near Mt. Fuji last January.

I was kind of squeezed in to one side of the ferry; there was not much room to try to walk around and take pictures looking in different directions. So the only picture I have from the trip over is this view that looks at the northern end of Itsukushima Island which, as you can see, is very mountainous.

Itsukushima (popularly known as "Miyajima", Japanese for "Shrine Island") is located in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest part of Hiroshima Bay. Itsukushima is mountainous and sparsely settled. It has an elementary school and a middle school. There are no traffic signals. It is rural and mountainous, only 11 square miles, with a population of around 750 full-time residents, most of whom live around the actual shrine in Miyajima town. The island is part of a large national park/nature preserve; it has no cities, only small towns with simple houses and privately owned shops. The islanders work hard to preserve the forests and respect nature. The only way on or off the island is via one of the scheduled ferries.

The island contains the Miyajima Natural Botanical Garden on its north coast. As it turned out, the photo I took of the north end of the island is actually a photo of most of the area covered by the Botanical Garden.

The aerial view at left shows the port area of Miyajima, but of course it is very recent- perhaps 2020. While I did not take lots of pictures of it, I do recall that the town was small but very picturesque. I think it was not yet "discovered" by foreign tourists; most of the visitors were relatively local Japanese who came almost exclusively to visit the shrine or to take a weekend excursion up to the top of Mt. Misen.

My guidebook described the main street (in fact the only street) leading up from the ferry dock very accurately. It was indeed lined with garish souvenir stands, almost all selling the same postcards, dolls, gaily-wrapped rice candles, and towels whose nude illustrations become visible only when wet.

The buildings were almost all small wooden structures. I think that the relatively new bank and post office were the only stone/concrete buildings in the entire town. And the small area by the port was quite crowded, as the ferry I came over on is one of three or four ferries that come here from various places- one from the port of Hiroshima itself.

In placing the pictures I took here in Miyajima town, I tried to investigate to see where some of them might have been taken, and perhaps find aerial views or maps that would match. This proved fruitless, however, as in 2020 Miyajima is over five times as large as it was when I visited.

I want you to take a look at the aerial view at right of Miyajima, circa 2020. And then take a look at the picture below, left, that I took as I walked along the shore heading to the shrine.

The photo at left looks back north along the shore towards the ferry docks, and I have walked down the beachside pathway that you see arcing away from me in the picture. If you look closely at the aerial view at right, you will see that there is a place where a jetty or large dock sticks out into the water, and you can see that same feature in my photo at left. So I can pretty much place my photo as showing the area pointed to by the yellow star.

But I want to point out here that my photo showed just about all the buildings that existed in Miyajima when I visited. Behind the row of buildings along the shore (to the right in my photo) there were a few houses and such, but little else. In the aerial view above right, however, you can see that the entire area has been built up. I've circled the area of buildings that were there in 1971, and you can see how much the area has grown.

But even the shore has changed. If you look at my photo, you can see that on the waterside of the retaining wall there are many boats docked there. Presumably, these are anchored there and just rise and fall with the tide.

But in the closeup aerial view at left (again circa 2020), you can see that that whole area has been renovated, and the boats moved elsewhere. I suppose this is due to the population growth in the area, but today the waterfront at Miyajima is much different.

Looking at the structures in today's aerial view, and comparing them to the photo I took of this same area, it seems as if most of them have been either dramatically enlarged or rebuilt altogether. This is not surprising at all, as it has been more than a half-century since my visit.

But I always think it is interesting when I compare many of my old photographs to the way places are today. Locations like the Miyajima waterfront have usually changed dramatically, but in a bit, when we get to the Itsukushima Shrine, you will find that these historic buildings and their locale have changed very, very little.

So the town of Miyajima was very small and very picturesque- kind of a sleepy backwater when compared to the bustling cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. I continued walking down towards Itsukushima Shrine, and along the way took a couple of additional pictures:

This picture looks back across the water to the mainland, and the town of Miyajima-guchi. The train station was at the base of that observation tower (a building which, incidentally, is no longer there).

Here is a view looking south along the shoreline of Itsukushima Island. There are no settlements down that way, as it is part of the national park.

The Shrines

Itsukushima is famous for the many shrines and temples that are situated on the island. I visited two of them- the Senjokaku (Toyokuni) Shrine and the Itsukushima Shrine, which together in the 1990s became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The two shrines are adjacent to each other, with the Toyokuni Shrine on the north and the Itsukushima Shrine south of it. You can see both of them in the aerial view at left, but I want to show you my pictures of each one separately.

Entrance to the shrines complex was through a large torii gate, and you can see my picture of it below:

Toyokuni Shrine

Senjokaku Hall or Toyokuni Shrine is the largest building on Miyajima Island; its name means "the hall of 1000 tatami mats". It is part of a larger area that includes the five-story pagoda and which is actually a Buddhist shrine, in contrast to Itsukushima Shrine just south of it which is a Shinto shrine.

The name was chosen appropriately because of the huge size of the hall. In 1872 the shrine was dedicated to the daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi (one of the three unifiers of Japan during the 16th century).

Daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) gave the order to build Senjokaku in 1587. He wanted a place for chanting Buddhist sutras for fallen soldiers. He died in 1598 before the shrine was completed. Actually to this day the shrine is still unfinished. Senjokaku was designated as a Specially Preserved Building in 1910. In 1963 the Japanese Government gave it the status as an National Important Cultural Property.

Originally, Amitabha Buddha and two Buddhist saints, Ānanda and Mahākāśyapa, were enshrined in the structure. But at the time of the Meiji reformation, the structure was converted into a Shinto shrine dedicated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Numerous votive picture tablets that had been hanging in the Itsukushima Shrine buildings until the Meiji era, have been hung on the walls inside the hall.

Not every shrine here is Shinto; one that I did not visit (as it is only for Japanese) is Daiganji Temple, dedicated to the Goddess Benzaiten as well as three Buddhas important to Shingon Buddhism. This Japanese Goddess is thought to be the same as the Goddess Saraswati in Hinduism; she is the Goddess of eloquence, music, arts, wealth and knowledge.

The nearby Five-storied Pagoda, constructed in 1407 and therefore predating Senjokaku, enshrined Yakushi Nyorai Zazo, the Buddha of Medicine said to have been made by Kobo Daishi himself, accompanied by Fugen Bosatsu (Mercy Buddha) and Monju Bosatsu (Wisdom Buddha). The three images were moved to the Daiganji Temple during the Meiji reformation.

Between the Toyotomi Shrine and Itsukushima there is a little park with tame animals, deer and birds, for whom you can buy food for and feed out of your hand. There were lots of kids around as it seems like a popular place for families.

Deer roam freely in the little park. Deer are thought of as sacred in the native Shinto religion because they are considered messengers of the gods. They walk the streets of the city, not afraid of the tourists.

The Small Park Between the Shrines

Some Kids Engaging with a Deer

I took some time to buy food and feed the animals. The birds weren't timid, and it was startling when ten or twenty descended on your outstretched hand to eat the food you could hold.

Up Close and Personal

"Holy Tippi Hedren, Batman!"

Itsukushima Shrine

Located on a shallow inlet just south of the Toyotomi Shrine, Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine best known for its "floating" torii gate. The Japanese government has designated several buildings and possessions as National Treasures. The shrine is one of Japan's most popular tourist attractions.

Itsukushima Shrine is said to have been erected in 593 by Saeki Kuramoto during the Suiko period, but the present shrine has been popularly attributed to Taira no Kiyomori, a prominent warlord who contributed heavily to the building of the shrine during his time as governor of Aki Province in 1168. Another renowned patron of the shrine was the warlord Mori Motonari, who was responsible for rebuilding it in 1571. But this warlord is said to have tainted the island's grounds by battling on the island against a rival. This relates to the strict notions of sacred purity that Shinto shrines stand for.

It was not uncommon during the 16th century for daimyo to build shrines or take on other architectural projects in order to "reflect their power and splendor." The daimyo Kiyomori was at the height of his power when he established the Taira dominion over the island. He ordered construction of the main hall of Itsukushima shrine as a display of reverence for the god of navigation and to serve as a base for maritime activities. Miyajima soon became the Taira family shrine. Supposedly, Kiyomori chose the location also for the reason to further establish himself in the aristocracy as one who deviated from the social norms of Shinto pilgrimage. He lavished great wealth upon Itsukushima, and he enjoyed showing the place to his friends and colleagues, or even to royal personages.

It is also said that Kiyomori rebuilt the shrine on account of a dream he had of an old monk who promised him dominion over Japan if he constructed a shrine on the island of Miyajima, and pay homage to its kami who are enshrined there for his success in life. The renovations funded by the Taira allowed for Itsukushima to grow into an important religious complex. My first view of this complex came when I walked out to the end of the point of land opposite the Torii Gate out in the water, and was able to look to my southwest to see the shrine spread out along the shore.

Itsukushima Shrine

Japan has gone to great lengths to preserve the twelfth-century-style architecture of the Shrine throughout history. The shrine was designed and built according to the Shinden-zukuri style, equipped with pier-like structures over the Matsushima bay in order to create the illusion of floating on the water, separate from island, which could be approached by the devout like a palace on the sea. This idea of intertwining architecture and nature is reflective of a popular trend during the 16th century as well as the Heian period in which Japanese structures tended to follow after their environment, often allowing trees, water, and other forms of natural beauty to enter into the decor of homes and buildings. This led to a far more intimate relationship between the two.

In reading this information in my guidebook, I was struck by the similarity of these architectural principles to the rise of the "form follows function" school of architecture in the United States, and particularly the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was famous, in part, for incorporating the landscape into his structures- particularly those in rural settings such as Miyajima.

Some of the very beautiful ornamentation at the Shrine, much of it donated by patrons.

Shinto architecture has many distinct parts, most of which include the shrine's honden (main hall) and the unusually long haiden (main oratory), and its equally long heiden (offertory hall). The honden is an eight-by-four bay structure with a kirizuma roof surfaced in cypress bark. Its walls are decorated in white stucco; they were constructed using a process requiring fifteen coats of white stucco, with vermilion woodwork.

The Itsukushima shrine is dedicated to the three daughters of the Goddess Susano-o no Mikoto, known as the sanjoshin or "three female deities". These Shinto deities are the goddesses of seas and storms. Kiyomori believed the goddesses to be manifestations of Kannon, and therefore the island was understood as the home of the bodhisattva. In Japanese, Itsukushima translates to mean "island dedicated to the gods". In fact, the island itself is also considered to be a god, which is why the shrine was built on the outskirts of the island. Adding to the sanctity of the site is Mount Misen- and 1,800-foot peak.

The shrine complex itself consists of two main buildings: the Honsha shrine and the Sessha Marodo-jinja, as well as 17 other different buildings and structures that help to distinguish it.

The tide is going out. The days are very warm in this part of Japan in the very early Summer.

Extending from the sides of the haraiden of the main shrine is a noh stage which dates from 1590. Noh theater performances have long been used to pay homage to the gods through the ritual acting out of key events in Shinto myth.

Originally Itsukushima was a pure Shinto shrine where no births or deaths were allowed to cause pollution. Because the island itself has been considered sacred, commoners were not allowed to set foot on it throughout much of its history to maintain its purity. Retaining the purity of the shrine is so important that since 1878, no deaths or births have been permitted near it. To this day, pregnant women are supposed to retreat to the mainland as the day of delivery approaches, as are the terminally ill or the very elderly whose passing has become imminent. Burials on the island are forbidden.

To allow pilgrims to approach, the shrine was built like a pier over the water, so that it appeared to float, separate from the land. The red entrance gate, or torii, was built over the water for much the same reason. Commoners had to steer their boats through the torii before approaching the shrine.

The most recognizable and celebrated feature of the Itsukushima shrine is its fifty-foot tall vermilion otorii gate ("great gate"), built of decay-resistant camphor wood. It stands some 400 feet out from the shrine itself, and on the aerial view you can see that there is a pathway constructed to it, although that pathway is only visible (or usable) at low tide.

I think the aerial view at left is pretty amazing. It is obviously from the present day, and I have zoomed in and made use of Google Maps' 3D feature to tilt the view.

Of course it is interesting to see the gate from this angle, and we'll talk more about the gate itself in a moment. But also interesting in this picture is the stonework in the lower right. It looks like a multi-tiered "cake" or someting, right there at the edge of the water.

Why is this stonework interesting? If you go back up the page and look at my picture of the shrine itself, the one taken looking across the water, you will see that same stonework in the lower left corner of my picture! So that stone structure has stood the test of time, appearing both in my 1971 picture and in a 2021 aerial view.

When I took that picture earlier on this page, I was standing just northwest of that stone pyramid, and you can just see some of the levels of it in my picture. I also want to point out that I have some pictures of the torii gate and of the shrine when the tide was in and when it was out. That's because I took some pictures before my ascent of Mount Misen and others after I came back down. The gate was surrounded by water when I first arrived on the island, but by the time I came back down from the peak it had pretty much gone out.

The most recognizable and celebrated feature of the Itsukushima shrine, is its fifty-foot tall vermilion otorii gate ("great gate"), built of decay-resistant camphor wood. The placement of an additional leg in front of and behind each main pillar identifies the torii as reflecting the style of Ryōbu Shintō (dual Shinto), a medieval school of esoteric Japanese Buddhism associated with the Shingon Sect.

In fact, this is one of the largest Torii gates in Japan, and sits in the water a short distance from the Shrine. At night, powerful lights on the shore illuminate the torii. Although the gate has been in place since 1168, the current gate dates back only to 1875.

The torii appears to be floating only at high tide. At low tide it is possible to walk out to it, and many Japanese do so, if only to pick up the fish and shellfish that are left stranded by the tide.

When I visited Miyajima, only Japanese could actually go into the shrine buildings, which is why I don't have any photographs taken inside them. I might note that sometime since my visit this policy was changed, and now, anyone can go visit the shrine and wander through its buildings for 300Y (about $2.50).

The Trip to the Top of Mount Misen

The peak of Mount Misen, at 1800 feet, is the highest point on the island. The Miyajima Ropeway carries visitors to the Shishiwa Station near the summit, and from there it is a 30-minute walk to the top. There are several sites related to the historic Buddhist priest and founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kōbō Daishi, near the top.

The best views of the small (19 miles around) island, of course, are from the top of the aerial ropeway which climbs up Mount Misen. My guidebook said that I would find a path to the Momijidani Station (the starting point for the ropeway) near the five-story pagoda. As usual, the guidebook was quite right.

While the guidebook also pointed out that a bus from the center of Miyajima to the base of the aerial ropeway leaves every 20 minutes, it recommended walking through the lovely woods in at least one direction. It said I would pass "streams and waterfalls and a beautiful ryokan". I decided to walk to the station and perhaps take the bus back.

The woods appeared to be mostly maple trees, and the guidebook said that Miyajima's maple trees are renowned throughout Japan and blanket the island in crimson in the autumn.

It went on to say that Momiji manjū, pastries filled with azuki jam or custard, are popular souvenirs and carry maple-leaf emblems. Many other varieties such as chocolate and cheese are also popular with Japanese tourists. Because the island is seen as sacred, trees may not be cut for lumber.

The aerial ropeway cost 300Y round trip- about 80 cents- and is in two stages.

The way ropeways are constructed, they don't "turn corners". I think this is because the cables won't last very long if there is some pulley system that could enable the turn. So ropeways (cable cars) are usually straight shots. (Actually, I don't know of any that aren't.)

Because of the topography here, running the cable in a straight line to the top of the mountain was impossible, so there is an intermediate station (Kayatani Station). There, one gets off the first cable car, walks a short distance from terminal to terminal, and then gets on the second leg.

The whole process is pretty interesting. The cable cars I rode on my two trips to Japan were the first I had ever been on (not being a skier).

The whole trip to the top took about twenty minutes as the cable cars go pretty slowly.

If you want to know what the cable cars looked like, here is a photo I took on my way down from the top of the mountain in the afternoon to the intermediate Kayatani Station. When I reached the top, I was at the Shishiwa Station:

Looking at that aerial view of the station, the actual mountain peak was out of the picture to the left, but you can see the beginning of the trail that led over to it. I thought I would make that my first destination, so I headed off on the trail. I quickly met yet another young Japanese who seemed eager to walk along with me- the the students in Kyoto. This made the 20-minute walk go by pretty quickly.

This view of the area of the Inland Sea around Miyajima was typical of the views I got from the end of the trail on the peak of Mount Misen. The views from here were striking.

The island of Itsukushima, including the waters around it (part of Seto Inland Sea), lies within Setonaikai National Park. From the top of the peak we had views of dozens of pine-covered islands half shrouded by the mists far below.

I brought my telephoto lens with me, and I tried to use it to get some closer views of the islands around me, but the mists were such that with the extreme telephoto the pictures were, for the most part, a bit blurry and indistinct. But here are some of the pictures that turned out good enough to see:

The young man I met on the trail (who I recall was a designer for Toyota) was nice enough to take a picture of me here on the mountaintop, and I also took his picture. Neither one of us was expert enough to know that backlit subjects need a flash:

If I travel much in the future, I should carry a little notebook where I can write down details of who I meet and what I do. Most of my picture narratives were written months after the pictures were taken. After a while, I returned along the trail to wander around the area by the cable car station.

As it turned out, I was far from alone around the station. Not only were there lots of other tourists (all except me were Japanese), but there were at least fifty or sixty monkeys! (I wasn't surprised, as the guidebook told me what to expect.)

The scores of small monkeys which are being studied under some scientific project of the Institute of Primatology. They're so eager and so smart that when you put 10Y into the slot machine to get them some peanuts, they'll sometimes open the slot and grab the packet before you can.

At left you can see one of the many monkeys, along with a member of the next generation, that are roaming free around the observation area on top of the mountain. You could buy stuff to feed the monkeys and deer and birds, but the monkeys would eat anything.

At one point I bought an ice cream cone for myself, and I had my back to one chimp who took a running start, clambered over my back, and pushed off from my shoulder to grab the cone and be gone with it before I even realized what had happened!

I took quite a few pictures here, and I also prevailed on the young man who I met on the trail to take some of me feeding the animals. The deer were considerably more polite than the monkeys!

Returning to Hiroshima

Late in the afternoon, I prepared to begin my return trip to Hiroshima and, from there, my return trip to Korea.

While I was waiting for the next cable car from Shishiwa Station back down to the town of Miyajima, I happened to take the photo at left. While it may appear to just show some mountain scenery, if you look closely you can pick out the cable car ascending from the midway station up to Shishiwa.

The cable car arrived presently, and I boarded for the trip back down. It was a smooth ride, and when I got to the bottom I decided to again walk back to the town.

The path brought me back to the shrine area, so I walked along the shore to the port to wait for the next ferry back across to the mainland.

Once I got to the dock on the island, I saw that there was also a direct ferry back to Hiroshima, and I might have liked to have taken it, but I had already got my round-trip train ticket. And if I had taken the ferry, it would have let me off at Hiroshima's port dock, and I would have had to find a way back to the Hotel New Hiroshima.

As the ferry left Miyajima, I was able to maneuver to a spot on the boat from which I could get a nice picture looking back towards Itsukushima Shrine and its red torii gate sitting out in the water.

Then I settled into my seat and just a few minutes later was getting off the ferry and walking back to the Miyajima-guchi train station. There, it was an easy matter to read the train station signs and find the platform for my train back to Hiroshima Central Station.

About an hour later I was walking from the station back to the Hotel New Hiroshima for my last night here in Japan. I had a good supper at a little Japanese restaurant about a half-mile from the hotel.

Returning to Camp Howze

There's not much to say about my return to Camp Howze. I caught a morning train back to Tokyo, where I arrived in mid-afternoon. I took the now familiar subway/train combination back to Yokota Air Base where I had once again left my uniform at the Officer's Open Mess. I changed back into it and headed to the air terminal for my 6pm flight back to Kimpo. I arrived there about eight o'clock and got one of the last buses into Yongsan and then the very last bus out to Camp Howze.

This had been another amazing trip; about the only thing that would have improved it might have been to have a companion along for it.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	June 16, 1971: Hiroshima, Japan
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