Miyajima (Shrine Island) is an island of some 11 1/2sq.mi/ 30sq.km in Hiroshima Bay, which opens off the Inland Sea. It is also known as Itsukushima after its famous shrine. Along with Matsushima Bay and Ama-no-hashidate it ranks among the three most celebrated stretches of coastal scenery in Japan.
From time immemorial this
was a scared island on which, until Meiji Restoration, neither births nor deaths might take place and from which dogs were banned. Dogs are still not permitted, though this is now mainly for the protection of the many fallow deer on the island; and there is still no cemetery on Miyajima, so that burials must take place at Ono on the mainland, and even then the relatives of the dead must perform rites of purification before they may return to the "pure" island of Miyajima.
Print this page
Add to Favorites
