Amatsu Shrine (天津神社 (糸魚川市))

Amatsu Shrine sits at the western edge of Niigata Prefecture, in Itoigawa — a city positioned at the precise geological boundary where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. This is the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line, and the shrine’s location is no coincidence. For over a millennium, this shrine has served as the spiritual anchor for Japan’s jade-working tradition, guarding the only place in the country where nephrite jade can be found in workable quantities. The shrine’s foundation myth links celestial descent directly to stone: the kami arrived here, the legend says, because this was where the earth offered up its most sacred material.

Amatsu Shrine was established in the early Heian period, with records indicating a formal foundation around 807 CE, though the site likely held sacred significance much earlier. The shrine served as one of three competing ichinomiya (first-ranking shrines) of Echigo Province, a status that reflected both its spiritual authority and its economic importance in the jade trade. Itoigawa’s jadeite deposits — formed through high-pressure metamorphism along the fault line — were worked from the Jomon period onward, and magatama (curved jade beads) produced here appear in burial sites across ancient Japan. The shrine became the ritual centre for this extraction, with priests blessing tools and offering thanksgiving for each stone removed from the Himekawa and Omi rivers. During the medieval period, the shrine maintained close ties with the Northern Court during the Nanboku-cho conflicts, and was rebuilt several times after fires in the Muromachi and Edo periods.

Ame-no-Hohi-no-Mikoto (天穂日命) is the primary deity, one of the five sons of Amaterasu born during her contest with Susanoo in the Kojiki. Ame-no-Hohi was sent to negotiate with Okuninushi during the “Transfer of the Land” but became too attached to the earthly realm and failed to return. He is venerated here as an ancestor of the Izumo priestly lineage and as a kami of diplomacy, mediation, and connection between heaven and earth. The shrine also enshrines Onamuchi-no-Mikoto (another name for Okuninushi) and Nunakawa-hime, a local goddess of the Itoigawa region who appears in the Kojiki as the woman Okuninushi courted and married. Nunakawa-hime is closely associated with jade itself — her name connects to the Nuna River, where jadeite was historically gathered.

The Jade Goddess and the Travelling God

In the Kojiki, Okuninushi travels all the way from Izumo to Itoigawa to court Nunakawa-hime, a goddess renowned for her beauty and her connection to the sacred stones of the region. He stands outside her dwelling for an entire night singing poetry, and she eventually accepts him by reciting her own verse at dawn. Their union is understood not as romantic allegory but as a mythological encoding of trade routes: Izumo’s control over jade distribution from Itoigawa. The shrine venerates Nunakawa-hime as the protector of the jade deposits, and local belief holds that the green stones are fragments of her divine essence made physical. In ritual practice, jade is not merely mined but “received” — an act requiring purification and gratitude overseen by the shrine’s priests.

The shrine’s honden (main hall) is built in the nagare-zukuri style with a cypress bark roof, reconstructed in the late Edo period and maintained through periodic restoration. The approach passes through a stone torii and climbs a gentle slope lined with cryptomeria, opening into a courtyard where the haiden (worship hall) stands. Unusually, the shrine maintains a small display of raw and polished jadeite stones within the precincts, including examples of the pale green, deep green, and rare lavender varieties found locally. A secondary shrine within the grounds honors Ookuninushi-no-Mikoto in his aspect as a deity of nation-building. Stone lanterns along the path are carved from local andesite, visually distinct from granite lanterns common elsewhere. The surrounding forest is home to several centuries-old Japanese beech trees, a rarity at this elevation.

• Reitaisai (April 10–11) — The annual grand festival includes processions of mikoshi (portable shrines) through the old town and performances of kagura (sacred dance) in the shrine courtyard. Historically, jade artisans would present new works to the kami during this festival.
• Aki Matsuri (October 10–11) — The autumn festival focuses on harvest thanksgiving and includes offerings of newly harvested rice and sake brewed from local water, which flows from the same geological formation that produces jade.
• Jade Thanksgiving Ritual (Irregular) — When significant jade finds occur, or before major construction in jade-bearing areas, purification rites are conducted to seek the goddess’s permission.

Early November, when the beech forest turns gold and the first snow dusts the mountains behind the shrine, creating a stark contrast with the dark evergreens. The autumn festival has concluded, and the shrine is quiet. April 10–11 offers the opposite experience: the Reitaisai is Itoigawa’s largest annual event, with the entire town mobilized in procession. For those interested in jade, the nearby Fossa Magna Museum (10-minute walk) provides essential geological context and displays Jomon-period magatama made from Itoigawa jade.