The Izu shrine trail: Mishima, Izusan and Hakone
An exiled boy, years of prayers and a shogunate: how three shrines around Atami became the pilgrimage of Japan's first shogun, and how to visit them in a day.
By your host2 min read
As a boy, Minamoto no Yoritomo was sent into exile in Izu after his family lost a war in Kyoto, and he spent about twenty years here. He spent a good deal of them praying. At Izusan, on the hill above Atami's sea, he and Hojo Masako, who later became his wife, prayed for the Genji's return. At Mishima Taisha he is said to have prayed many times, a hundred days in a row among them. On 17 August 1180, the night of Mishima Taisha's festival, he raised his army. Within a few years he ruled eastern Japan from Kamakura.
He didn't forget the shrines. Yoritomo gave Izusan wide lands as the guardian of the eight Kanto provinces, and he began the Nisho-mōde, the shogun's pilgrimage to the two great shrines of Hakone and Izusan, which the Kamakura shogunate kept up as a New Year custom. Today many people visit all three, Mishima Taisha included.
Izusan Shrine, Atami
Izusan sits high above the sea on the north side of Atami. This is where Yoritomo and Masako prayed together, which is why couples come here today. At the purification fountain sit a red and a white dragon: by shrine tradition, they are what makes Atami's hot springs well up.
Mishima Taisha, Mishima
The first shrine of old Izu Province, a short train ride from Atami. Its main hall, offering hall and worship hall have been Important Cultural Properties since 2000, and in September a kinmokusei tree about 1,200 years old, a national natural monument, flowers twice and scents the whole precinct. Mishima is known for eel, so plan lunch here.
Hakone Shrine, Lake Ashi
Founded in 757, Hakone Shrine stands in the forest on the shore of Lake Ashi, about ten minutes' walk from the Moto-Hakone pier, with its Torii of Peace standing in the water. Yoritomo revered it deeply, and it was here that he founded the Nisho-mōde.
Doing it in a day
By car or hire car the three make a full day from Atami: Izusan in the morning, Mishima for lunch, over the pass to Lake Ashi in the afternoon, and back to the coast for dinner. By public transport, split it over two days, Izusan and Mishima on one and Hakone on the other. Add Kinomiya Shrine, with its camphor more than 2,000 years old, on your way back into town.
With your host
Our tour of Atami's shrines and the Jogasaki coast covers Kinomiya and Izusan; Mishima and Mt. Fuji covers Mishima Taisha; and A day in Hakone stops at Hakone Shrine. Tell us you'd like the whole trail and we'll plan it with you; you travel by train, in your own car or in a licensed hire car.
