Itsukushima Shinto Shrine

The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine

 

The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine World Heritage Site is the jewel of the island of Miyajima.  The island, with the ‘Mt. Misen Primaeval Forest’ natural monument, is a masterpiece of nature set in the Seto Inland Sea, itself an area of outstanding natural beauty.  The island was long regarded as sacred and the shrine is said to have been originally established around the sixth century A.D.

 

The shrine buildings were constructed by Taira-no-Kiyomori in 1168, in a distinctive style of architecture in which the buildings appear to float on the surface of the sea.  The style is known as the Shinden-Zukuri style and reached its zenith in the Heian Period (794-1184), the Golden Age of Japanese Culture.  That the shrine has survived to this day in its present elegant form is due to the generosity and foresight of many people down the centuries.

 

Itsukushima Shrine presents a combination of elegance in form, harmony with its beautiful natural setting of mountains and sea, and richness of historical texture that is rarely encountered elsewhere.  Furthermore, within the Shinto shrine complex, the vestiges of the former confluence of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan are powerfully conveyed by the rich vermillion colours. 

 

On 7 December, 1996, the shrine buildings and precints, the land behind the shrine comprising the Mt. Misen forest and park, and the sea in front of the shrine as far as the O-Torii (shrine gate), were registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as “The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine.”

 

We pledge to preserve this previous legacy and ensure its safekeeping for future generations.

 

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold