Inbe Shrine (忌部神社)

Inbe Shrine sits halfway up Mount Bizan in Tokushima, marking the place where a priestly clan that once dressed the gods became mountain exiles. The Inbe were one of the most powerful ritual families in ancient Japan — they wove the sacred garments for imperial enthronement ceremonies and fashioned the sacred mirror used to lure Amaterasu from her cave. When they lost a bureaucratic struggle to the rival Nakatomi clan in the 8th century, they scattered across the archipelago. This shrine, established by their Awa branch, stands as a memorial to liturgical defeat and the fragility of ritual authority.

The Inbe clan traced their lineage to Amenokoyane no Mikoto and Futodama no Mikoto, both of whom participated in the heavenly council that devised the plan to coax Amaterasu from the Ama-no-Iwato cave. Futodama crafted offerings and led rituals; his descendants became the hereditary makers of sacred objects for the imperial court. For centuries, the Inbe held monopoly rights over crucial ceremonies including the Daijōsai enthronement rites. However, in 807 CE, Imbe no Hironari submitted the Kogo Shūi to Emperor Heizei — a text that was simultaneously a historical record and a political complaint, arguing that the Nakatomi clan had usurped Inbe prerogatives. The petition failed. The Awa Inbe, already established in what is now Tokushima since the 6th century for their skill in producing hemp cloth and paper mulberry for ritual use, built this shrine as their regional headquarters, probably in the early Heian period.

Amenohiwashi no Mikoto (天日鷲命) is the primary deity, the ancestral kami of the Awa Inbe lineage and divine patron of textile production. According to the Kogo Shūi, he descended to Awa province and taught the people to cultivate hemp and paper mulberry, creating the raw materials for sacred cloth and ritual implements. He is considered a grandson of Takamimusubi, one of the first deities in creation mythology. Also enshrined are Futodama no Mikoto (太玉命), the chief ritualist during Amaterasu’s concealment, and Amenokoyane no Mikoto (天児屋根命), who recited liturgies at the same event — the latter became the ancestor of the rival Nakatomi/Fujiwara clan, making his presence here both genealogically correct and politically pointed.

The Cloth That Opened Heaven

When Amaterasu sealed herself in the heavenly rock cave, plunging the world into darkness, the eight million kami gathered to devise a solution. Amenohiwashi no Mikoto was commanded to quickly produce cloth for offerings. He planted hemp seeds that sprouted, grew, and matured in a single night through divine will. From this miraculous hemp, Futodama no Mikoto wove white nusa offering strips and blue nigite cloth. These were hung on the sakaki tree outside the cave as part of the elaborate ruse — dance, mirror, and laughter — that made Amaterasu curious enough to peek out, allowing Tajikarao to pull the boulder aside. The cloth made by Amenohiwashi became the prototype for all sacred textiles in Shinto ritual, and the reason his descendants controlled textile production for imperial ceremonies for eight centuries.

The shrine occupies a forested terrace on the eastern slope of Mount Bizan, reached by a steep stone stairway lined with cedars. The main hall follows the Shinmei-zukuri style with a cypress bark roof, though the current structure dates to a 1907 reconstruction after fire. The grounds contain several subsidiary shrines including one dedicated to Takaokami no Kami, a dragon deity of mountain water. A small museum building houses artifacts related to Inbe ritual implements: antique looms, samples of asa hemp cloth, wooden models of mirrors and jewels. Stone monuments inscribed with passages from the Kogo Shūi stand near the haiden. The view from the shrine terrace looks east across the Yoshino River plain to the Pacific — the direction from which, according to tradition, Amenohiwashi first arrived by boat.

• Spring Grand Festival (April 9) — Annual commemoration of Amenohiwashi’s descent to Awa, featuring offerings of locally-produced hemp cloth and performances of kagura dance by shrine maidens wearing blue robes in imitation of ancient nigite.
• Onda Matsuri (February 11) — Rice planting ritual conducted on the National Foundation Day, linking agricultural productivity to the Inbe legacy of sacred production.
• Autumn Festival (November 9) — Harvest thanksgiving with naorai feast emphasizing locally-grown grains and vegetables, maintaining the Inbe connection to agricultural first-fruits offerings.

Early November during the autumn festival, when the forested slope displays intense crimson and gold foliage, or early April when the stairway is framed by late-blooming mountain cherry trees. Weekday mornings offer solitude rare for shrines with such historical weight — the steep climb and residential location keep casual tourism low.