Ama no Iwato (Heavenly Rock Door)

The day after Christmas we drove from Kurokawa Onsen into Miyazaki Precture to the very small town of Takachiho. This place is featured in a lot of Japanese mythology. This is the place where the sun god is said to have hid. The story goes like this. I got this from http://www.jref.com/practical/takachiho.shtml I didn't write this. "8km north-east from Takachiho, Ama no Iwato (lit. "heavenly rock door") is where Amaterasu Omikami hid herself in a cave that plunged the world into darkness, after her wicked brother Susano-o bullied her with his dirty tricks.

The other gods grew concerned and tried all they could to lure Amaterasu out of her cave. They tried getting the cocks from the Eternal Land to crow, to fool her into believing that dawn had come without her. They tried to place the mirror in front of the cave's door, so that when she open it, she would think she had a rival and emerge out of jealousy. But she wouldn't open the door.

So goddess Ama-no-Uzumeno-Mikoto (lit. the "Terrible Heavenly Female") made herself a costume out of sasaki leaves, eulalia grass and moss and and perfomed a dance so comical and lewd that the Sun Goddess eventually got out of her cave to see what was happening."

So I wanted to see this place. It's also known for it's dances which imitate the dance that the sun god did (described above). But, we didn't have time to stay until night fall so we went to the temple. We wanted to see the cave where the sun goddess hid, but there was a sign in Japanese and the path was blocked off. At the time, my Japanese was pretty much nil. Still is, but it's better than it was then.

I saw a mother and two kids ask the monk something and then they got to go. So I asked him basically, "Can we go here? " And pointed. He responded something with a negative, but I didn't know the vocab. So we left. I think actually though he wanted us to wait we realized after we left because the one monk had already left to take that lady and the kids. Oh well, live and learn. We did get to see the cave where the gods met to debate how to get the sun goddess out of the other cave.

This is the shrine. It's in a forest. Very shady and beautiful. Below is a picture of those costumes they wear to do the dance.

See the guy in the corner?




I love strange mossy stuff. I love green, I guess that's why. Then we walked from the temple down to the cave where the gods held their meeting. It was a nice walk through the mossy forest.
I can't believe how long Markian's hair is here. I don't remember it being that long!

Finally we made it. It was so cool. People have neatly stacked thousands of rocks. The sheer number of them was so impressive. It just seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. We were impressed. It's a shame this place is kinda off the tourist map for most people, even Japanese. None of my Japanese friend have been here, though they know of the place.


It was really slick and wet. You had to be careful where you stepped.
The cave was dark and cool.

Wow, just so many. That must have taken a lot of time. People visiting were making new ones. This is one of my favorite shrines. It's just so different from what I've seen elsewhere, but so simple. It doesn't hurt that I really like caves.