There's one image that sums up Japan for half the world: a great vermilion wooden gate, tall and solitary, that seems to float on the sea in front of a green, mountainous island. That torii belongs to Itsukushima, on the island of Miyajima. Seeing it in person is one of those experiences that justify a trip to Japan on their own, especially at sunset, when the light turns it golden and the tide rises over its base. It's no accident that Miyajima has ranked among the country's three most beautiful views for centuries.
But the island is much more than its famous gate. Miyajima has been considered sacred since time immemorial. It was so sacred that for centuries no one was allowed to be born or die there, and that's why Itsukushima Shrine was built over the water, in the intertidal zone, so as not to defile the holy ground. Behind the shrine rises Mount Misen, a primeval forest full of tame deer, hidden temples and viewpoints over the island-dotted Seto Inland Sea. And the food in town is wonderful: huge grilled oysters and momiji manju, the maple-leaf-shaped sweet.
This guide covers Miyajima with a practical, friendly eye. It explains how to get there from Hiroshima, how to use the tides for the best photos of the torii, what to see at the shrine and Daisho-in Temple, how to climb Mount Misen and why it's worth staying the night. Miyajima brings together spirituality, nature and good food on a manageable scale, and it leaves a lasting memory.
Miyajima, officially Itsukushima, has been revered as a sacred island since ancient times. It was believed to be the home of the gods, so for centuries it was forbidden to cut down trees there, or even to be born or die on the island. According to tradition, Itsukushima Shrine, dedicated to three sea goddesses, dates back to 593. Its current form, with vermilion halls raised on pillars in the intertidal zone and linked by walkways over the water, is the work of Taira no Kiyomori, the powerful leader of the Taira clan. Around 1168 he rebuilt and enlarged the shrine, making it his clan's family shrine and a symbol of his power. The great torii that seems to float in front of the shrine has had several versions over the centuries; the current one dates from 1875. In 1555, the island was the site of the Battle of Miyajima, in which the lord Mori Motonari defeated a rival and took control of western Japan. Long counted among the country's three most beautiful views (Nihon Sankei), Miyajima was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Western Honshu: Hiroshima, reborn after the atomic bomb as a city of peace, and the sacred island of Miyajima with its floating torii.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
To understand Miyajima, you have to start with one idea that explains almost everything: the whole island is sacred. Long before the first shrine was built, the people of the area worshipped the island of Itsukushima as the home of the gods, a place too holy to be walked on lightly. Its mountain, Misen, its forests and its rocks were all objects of worship, in line with the Shinto belief that the gods (kami) live in nature. This sacredness was so strict that for centuries the island lived under extraordinary taboos. Nobody could cut down the trees of the sacred forest, and nobody was allowed to be born or to die on the island, because life and death were seen as sources of ritual impurity. Pregnant women and the sick elderly had to cross to the mainland, and there were no cemeteries on the island at all.
This way of seeing the island gave Miyajima its most unusual feature: a shrine built on the water. Building on the sacred ground would have defiled it, so the answer was to raise Itsukushima Shrine in the intertidal zone, on pillars in the strip that the sea covers and uncovers with the tides. The shrine sits neither fully on land nor fully at sea. It stands on a threshold between the two worlds, literally floating between the human and the divine. The great torii standing in the water marked the entrance to the sacred grounds 'from the sea': pilgrims arrived by boat and passed beneath it before approaching the shrine, as an act of purification.
Tradition says the shrine was founded in 593 and dedicated to three goddesses, daughters of the storm god Susanoo. They protect the seas and sailors, a fitting choice for an island in the Seto Inland Sea. That ancient devotion laid the foundations for what, centuries later, would become one of the most revered and beautiful places in Japan.
The shrine we admire today, with its vermilion halls linked by walkways over the sea, is largely the work of one man: Taira no Kiyomori, one of the most powerful figures in 12th-century Japan. Kiyomori led the Taira clan, a warrior family that rose to unprecedented political power in the middle of that century. As the age of the aristocrats came to an end, he came to control the imperial court and, in practice, to rule the country. Kiyomori felt a special devotion to the goddesses of Itsukushima, to whom he credited his good fortune. He decided to make their shrine the guardian temple of his clan and a work worthy of his glory.
Around 1168, Kiyomori paid for a major rebuilding and enlargement of the shrine, which gave it its present form. The result was an elegant group of halls in the refined architectural style of the aristocracy of the time (the shinden style of noble mansions), stretched out over the sea by long galleries. Under his patronage, Itsukushima became a leading religious centre and received treasures and donations. Among them were magnificent decorated sutra scrolls, now kept as National Treasures. In its sophisticated beauty, the shrine reflected the courtly, aesthetic world the Taira stood for.
Like so many others, the Taira's golden age did not last. A few years after Kiyomori's death, his clan was wiped out by the Minamoto in the Genpei War (1180-1185), which ushered in the age of the shoguns. But the shrine Kiyomori had glorified outlived the fall of his clan, and the powerful rulers who came later went on worshipping and supporting it. Its design, set in the 12th century, has come down to us through a series of rebuildings faithful to the original. The wooden buildings over the sea have suffered fires, typhoons and the constant wear of the tides.
Despite its sacred status, or perhaps because of its strategic value, Miyajima did not escape war. In 1555, in the middle of the civil war era (Sengoku), the island was the scene of the Battle of Miyajima. In this decisive clash, the cunning lord Mori Motonari, with a smaller army, set a trap for his rival Sue Harukata and defeated him completely. The victory established Mori Motonari as the great lord of western Japan. Fighting a battle, with all the bloodshed and death it brings, on an island where dying was forbidden was seen as a serious desecration. It is said that after the victory Motonari ordered the shrine and the island to be purified, and even had the bodies removed and the blood washed away, to restore their sacred purity.
Once that episode was over, Miyajima kept growing as a pilgrimage destination. Powerful figures such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi left their mark: he ordered the great Senjokaku hall to be built next to the five-storey pagoda, though it was still unfinished when he died. During the Edo period, under the Tokugawa peace, the island became a popular place for pilgrimage and religious travel. Visitors came from all over Japan to worship at the shrine and admire its beauty.
It was that very beauty that earned it a famous honour. In the 17th century, the scholar Hayashi Gaho set down the idea of the 'Three Views of Japan' (Nihon Sankei), the three sights considered the most beautiful in the country: the sandbar of Amanohashidate, the island-dotted bay of Matsushima and the floating torii of Miyajima. This aesthetic seal of approval, repeated for centuries in paintings, prints and travel guides, fixed Miyajima in the Japanese imagination as one of the most beautiful places in the nation. That was long before cameras from all over the world turned towards its vermilion gate.
Behind the shrine, towering over the island, rises Mount Misen. The mountain was sacred even before the shrine existed, and it is a core part of Miyajima's spiritual identity. Its 535 metres are covered by a protected primeval forest, with centuries-old trees and giant rocks worshipped as sacred objects. For centuries the mountain has been a place of religious practice, both Shinto and Buddhist. Its summit offers one of the most celebrated views in Japan, over the Seto Inland Sea and its countless islands.
Tradition links Misen with one of the great figures of Japanese Buddhism: Kobo Daishi (Kukai), founder of Shingon Buddhism and of Mount Koya. The story goes that around 806 Kukai climbed Misen to carry out ascetic practices and lit a sacred fire there. According to belief, it has been burning without interruption for more than twelve hundred years in the hall known as Reikado. This deeply symbolic fire played a moving role in recent history: part of the fire for the Peace Flame that burns in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park was taken from this eternal flame. It links the age-old spirituality of Miyajima with the memory of the atomic bombing, just a few kilometres away.
Today, climbing Mount Misen, by ropeway and then on foot or all the way along its trails, rounds off a visit to Miyajima with its most natural and contemplative side. In the forest you will find wild deer and monkeys, small temples and hermitages, and the feeling of being in a place where nature and the sacred have blended together for centuries. The mountain is a reminder that Miyajima is not just its famous torii but a whole island revered as divine.
In 1996, Unesco added Itsukushima Shrine to the World Heritage List. It recognised the shrine's outstanding value as an architectural masterpiece that brings together building and landscape, history and spirituality in a sublime way. The protected area includes not only the halls over the sea but also the virgin forest of Mount Misen behind them. This makes clear that what is being protected is the relationship between the shrine and its sacred natural setting.
That recognition made Miyajima one of Japan's must-see destinations. Every year, millions of visitors cross by ferry to photograph the torii, walk the shrine's walkways, stroll among the deer and climb Misen. Because Hiroshima is so close, many people combine the island with a visit to the Peace Memorial Park, in a single day that brings together quiet beauty and historical memory. That popularity, however, brings the usual challenges of mass tourism. Crowds gather in the middle of the day and put pressure on a small, fragile island. In response, a visitor tax was introduced in 2023 to fund conservation of the area and visitor management.
Today Miyajima faces the same challenge as other great treasures of the country: staying a living, sacred place and not just a backdrop for photos. If you manage to visit it calmly, by staying the night, getting up early or walking around at sunset once the day-trippers have gone, you will discover the island that won over pilgrims and poets for centuries. You will see the lit-up torii reflected in the sea, the silence of the shrine at dawn, the deer outlined against the bay and the sacred mountain wrapped in mist. In that quiet Miyajima, fifteen hundred years on, the old belief that founded it is still alive: that this is an island where the gods live.
