Motoisenaikukotaijinja Shrine

This shrine is said to be where the sacred mirror of Amaterasu was enshrined after being brought from Yamato in the 39th year of Emperor Sujin. The mirror moved from place to place across Japan for another 54 years before finally settling at Ise Grand Shrine in Mie, which is why this site is called Moto-Ise, the original Ise. Emerge from a mountain path lined with ancient cedars and the main hall stands before you on a grand scale, flanked by two auxiliary shrines and encircled by some eighty small ones. Few shrines in Japan still keep both a thatched shinmei-zukuri main hall and a primitive torii of unstripped logs. The area around it echoes Ise in its names too — the Isuzu River, the Miya River, the Manai pond, the Uji bridge, a Sarutahiko shrine.