結 Musubi 日本語

The roads east

Seven journeys north and east, from the chronicles to the Kamakura period, and the fifty-four shrines that stand along their routes. This is a reading section, not a catalogue: none of these shrines is connected to this project.

Follow one and you have a line drawn across Japan a thousand years before the railways. Some of it is myth, some of it is documented history, and the difference is marked on every route.

01 Sano Shrine02 Miyazaki Jingu03 Tsuno Shrine04 Tateiwa Shrine05 Okada-gu06 Take Shrine (E-no-miya)07 Koshima Shrine08 Hiraoka Shrine09 Ono Shrine10 Kamayama Shrine11 Kamikura Shrine12 Yatagarasu Shrine13 Kashihara Jingu01 Kehi Jingu02 Isasumi Shrine01 Ise Jingu, Naiku02 Kusanagi Shrine03 Yaizu Shrine04 Hashirimizu Shrine05 Tachibana Shrine06 Yoshida Shrine07 Ou Shrine08 Sakaori-no-miya09 Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine10 Atsuta Jingu11 Mount Ibuki12 Nobono Shrine13 Otori Taisha01 Takahashi Shrine02 Awa Shrine01 Kiyomizu-dera02 Aritama Shrine03 Nihon Shrine04 Omuro Takao Shrine05 Yamizomine Shrine06 Hanazono Shrine07 Sakai-no-Myojin08 Sugafune Shrine09 Kashima Miko Shrine10 Tamura Shrine and Katchu-do11 Shiwahiko and Shiogama Shrine12 Nonodake Hakusan Shrine13 Takkoku-no-Iwaya Bishamon-do14 Tamura Shrine15 Takatsudo Kashima Shrine16 Tamura Shrine01 Omiya Hachimangu02 Kanezawa Hachimangu03 Takkoku-no-Iwaya, cliff Buddha01 Tsurugaoka Hachimangu02 Utsunomiya Futaarayama Shrine03 Shirakawa Barrier04 Atsukashiyama Defence Line05 Chuson-ji
Plotted from the shrines' own coordinates, not traced from a map. The shape of the country here is the one the shrines themselves make.
Mythological

The Eastern Expedition of Emperor Jimmu

Mythic age · 13 stops

From his birthplace in Hyuga to the throne at Kashihara: the founding journey of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.

Follow this road Mythological

The Four Generals of Emperor Sujin

Reign of Emperor Sujin · 2 stops

Two armies, one along the Japan Sea and one along the Pacific, meeting in what is now Aizu.

Follow this road Legendary

The Eastern Campaign of Yamato Takeru

Reign of Emperor Keiko · 13 stops

The sword, the grass fire, the wife who walked into the sea, and the white bird. The most widely told journey of them all.

Follow this road Legendary

The Eastern Progress of Emperor Keiko

Reign of Emperor Keiko · 2 stops

A father retracing his dead son's road east.

Follow this road Historical

Sakanoue no Tamuramaro in the North

Early Heian, 790s-800s · 16 stops

A documented general with an undocumented afterlife: more than a thousand shrines and temples from Kyoto to Akita claim him as founder.

Follow this road Historical

Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and Yoshiie

Late Heian, 1051-1087 · 3 stops

Two generations of Minamoto in the north, and the beginning of the clan's hold over the warriors of the east.

Follow this road Historical

Minamoto no Yoritomo and the Oshu Campaign

1189, the Oshu campaign · 5 stops

The last of the eastern campaigns, and the end of an independent north.

Follow this road

Mythological: attested only in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Legendary: told in the early chronicles, without archaeological confirmation. Historical: documented events, though the founding story of any individual shrine remains local tradition.

None of the shrines described here takes part in this project, and none has been approached. They are written about because the roads they stand on are worth knowing. Coordinates are approximate and unverified — enough to show the shape of a route, not enough to navigate by.