Last Updated: Oct 15, 2023

Shimane Prefecture

My Visit to the “Land of the Gods”

Welcome back to another installment of my area guides. In today’s post we’ll be venturing down to the San’in region for a visit to the marvelous Shimane Prefecture. Located on the westernmost end of Japan’s main island, this area has long been hailed as “the land of the gods.” Nestled between the Sea of Japan and the neigh impassable Chugoku mountain range, this remote prefecture is home to both natural splendors as well as an extremely rich mythological legacy. Despite being one of Japan’s least populated locations, and very off the beaten path, Shimane has more than enough content to keep an intrepid traveler entertained for days on end.

Of course, Shimane’s true claim to fame is that it was the very birthplace of what we know as Japan. The area’s history is so vast and deep that it first appears at the very beginning of Japanese mytho-history in the Kojiki (lit. “Record of Ancient Matters”). Here, in the early mists of time, the primordial gods Izanami and Izanagi gave birth to much of the Shinto pantheon after first creating the world. Even to this day, one will continually stumble upon a variety of shrines erected across the prefecture honoring these two deities and their kin.