Izumo Taisha

One of the oldest shrines in Japan, named in the eighth-century chronicles as already ancient, and dedicated to Okuninushi, the deity who ceded this land to the imperial line and received in return a shrine and authority over the unseen, meaning relationships. People come here about marriage, and about connections generally.

Clap four times, not the usual two. The usual folk explanation is twice for yourself and twice for the person you hope to be connected to, though the shrine itself does not endorse that reading. Usa Jingu and a few others also use four claps, but almost every other shrine you visit will use two, and staff here will not correct you if you get it wrong, so know it in advance.

The main hall is 24 metres tall, the tallest shrine building in the country. Medieval records claimed the earlier structure reached 48 metres, on pillars, up a long staircase, and nobody believed it until 2000, when excavation at the front of the site uncovered three enormous cedar trunks bundled into a single pillar about three metres across. The claim is now taken seriously and the excavated pillars are displayed at the museum next door.

The rope over the Kagura-den, a separate building to the west, is the other thing people photograph: about 13.6 metres long and 5.2 tonnes, the largest shimenawa in Japan, replaced every few years by a team from a nearby village.

In the tenth lunar month, every other part of Japan calls the month kannazuki, the month without gods, because all of them are said to be here. Izumo alone calls it kamiarizuki, the month with gods. They are believed to arrive on Inasa beach, a twenty-minute walk west, which is worth doing for the sunset regardless.

Entry is free. Izumoshi station is a bus ride away, or take the Ichibata line to Izumo Taisha-mae.