Sakura Shrine — 作楽神社

Sakura Shrine sits on a forested hillside in Tsuyama, Okayama, and its name is deceptive. Though written with characters that can be read as “cherry blossom,” the shrine’s actual name — Sakura (作楽) — means “music making,” and its history is stranger than its homophone suggests. This is where Susanoo no Mikoto, the storm god who was banished from heaven for his violence, is said to have first created music on earth — specifically, the eight-fold melody he performed after slaying the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi. The shrine sits above the town where that serpent’s blood allegedly flowed into the rivers, turning them crimson for three days.

Sakura Shrine was founded in the early Heian period, around 806 CE, on a site already sacred to local hunters and foresters who worshipped the mountain as the dwelling place of protective spirits. The shrine’s establishment formalized the connection between this location and the legend of Susanoo’s triumph over Yamata no Orochi, which in some regional variants places the serpent’s death not in Izumo but in the mountains of what is now northern Okayama. By the Kamakura period, the shrine had become a center for ritual music and was patronized by the samurai families governing Tsuyama. The current main hall dates to 1661, rebuilt after destruction during the Sengoku period. In 1873, the shrine was designated a prefectural shrine, and it remains one of the most important Susanoo shrines in western Japan outside of Izumo Taisha.

Susanoo no Mikoto is the primary deity, the tempestuous younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun. After his banishment from Takamagahara (the heavenly realm) for defiling his sister’s sacred weaving hall and throwing a flayed horse through its roof, Susanoo descended to the Izumo region where he saved a family from the eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon Yamata no Orochi by getting it drunk and then beheading it. From the serpent’s tail he drew the legendary sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the three Imperial Regalia. Susanoo is venerated as a god of storms, seas, agriculture, and music — the latter because he is credited with creating the first Japanese musical performance as a celebration of his victory. Also enshrined here are Kushinadahime, the maiden Susanoo saved from the serpent and later married, and Ōnamuchi no Mikoto (another name for Ōkuninushi), Susanoo’s descendant who became the great nation-building deity.

According to the shrine’s founding legend, after Susanoo slew Yamata no Orochi in the mountains north of present-day Tsuyama, he stood on this hillside and performed the first eight-part musical composition as an offering to the heavens — both celebration and apology, acknowledging his transformation from divine troublemaker to heroic protector. The melody was said to have been so powerful that it caused the remaining seven heads of the serpent (already severed) to sing in harmony with their death. Local tradition holds that the eight great cedar trees surrounding the shrine’s inner sanctuary grew from the spots where the serpent’s heads fell, and that on certain nights in autumn, when wind passes through their branches, the trees produce an eight-note harmonic tone. The shrine’s musicians historically claimed to preserve fragments of Susanoo’s original melody in the kagura performed during the autumn festival, though the notation system has been lost since the Edo period.

The shrine complex climbs a steep hillside accessed by 183 stone steps, the number said to represent the eight-times-eight transformation of chaos into order (8×8 = 64, plus the additional ascent beyond simple doubling). The main hall is built in the kasuga-zukuri style with distinctive curved eaves and vermilion pillars, rebuilt in 1661 using timber from the sacred mountain behind the shrine. The haiden (worship hall) contains a suspended bronze bell dated to 1394, which is rung during festivals and is said to echo the voice of Kushinadahime calling Susanoo back from his wandering. Eight massive cedar trees — the largest over 800 years old — encircle the honden (main sanctuary), their canopy forming a natural roof. A small kagura stage stands to the left of the main approach, where ritual dances are performed during festivals. Behind the main complex, a hiking trail leads to the mountain summit shrine, a 40-minute climb through old-growth forest.

• Sakura Matsuri (October 15) — The main autumn festival featuring kagura performances that attempt to recreate the mythical eight-fold melody of Susanoo, with masked dancers portraying the battle with Yamata no Orochi in a dramatic nighttime performance lit by bonfires
• Haru Matsuri (April 20) — Spring festival with ritual rice-planting dances to honor Susanoo’s agricultural aspect, performed by local schoolchildren in historical costume
• Tsukimachi (monthly on the 8th) — Monthly evening gathering where shrine musicians practice preservation of traditional kagura melodies, open to observers

October, particularly around the autumn festival on October 15th, when the hillside forest displays brilliant autumn colors and the evening kagura performances transform the shrine into a theater of firelight and ancient music. The eight cedar trees frame the changing leaves spectacularly. Early morning visits in any season offer the chance to hear the cedar “singing” — the harmonic resonance created by wind through the branches, most audible in calm weather just after dawn. Avoid weekday afternoons, when tour buses from Tsuyama bring large groups. The spring festival in April also offers beauty but with fewer crowds.