Watazumi Shrine — 和多都美神社

Five torii gates stand in the sea at Watazumi Shrine, half-submerged at high tide, marking a threshold between land and the dragon palace that Japanese mythology places beneath the waves. The shrine sits on the shore of Asō Bay in Tsushima, an island closer to Korea than to mainland Japan, and it claims to be the actual location where Hoori no Mikoto, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, descended beneath the ocean to meet the Sea God’s daughter. The gates — red lacquer against blue water — disappear and reappear with the tide cycle, a daily performance of the boundary between human and divine realms.

Watazumi Shrine was established in the 6th century, though the site itself has been considered sacred since the Yayoi period when Tsushima served as a waypoint between the Korean peninsula and Japan. The shrine’s original name was Nirizaki Shrine, referencing the two capes that frame Asō Bay. It became known as Watazumi in the Heian period, taking its name from the three Watatsumi deities — the gods of the ocean’s upper, middle, and lower depths in Shinto cosmology. The shrine’s position on Tsushima, an island that has historically served as both trading post and battleground, imbued it with strategic spiritual significance. During the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281, the shrine became a site of prayer for divine winds — kamikaze — to protect Japan. The current main hall dates to 1622, rebuilt after destruction during Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Korean campaigns.

Hikohohodemi no Mikoto (彦火火出見尊), also called Hoori or Yamasachihiko, is the primary deity — the god who descended to the sea palace and married the daughter of the Sea God. His shrine name is particularly significant: “hohodemi” means “the abundance of rice ears,” connecting ocean and agricultural fertility. The shrine also enshrines Toyotamahime no Mikoto (豊玉姫命), the Sea God’s daughter who became Hoori’s wife, and the three Watatsumi no Kami — Uwatsutsunoo, Nakatsutsunoo, and Sokotsutsunoo — who govern the ocean’s three levels. Together, these deities form a complete mythology of ocean-human exchange, embodying safe passage across water, maritime prosperity, and the original union between divine and mortal that produced Japan’s imperial line.

The shrine’s founding legend identifies this bay as the entrance to Ryūgū-jō, the dragon palace where the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki record that Hoori spent three years. According to the myth, Hoori lost his brother’s fishhook in the ocean and, in desperation, followed the sea god’s messenger down through the waves. At the palace, he met and married Toyotamahime. When she became pregnant and returned to land to give birth, she made Hoori promise not to watch. He broke the promise and saw her true form — a giant crocodile or dragon — and she fled in shame back to the ocean, leaving their child behind. That child became the grandfather of Jimmu, Japan’s first emperor. Local Tsushima tradition adds a specific detail: the shrine’s grounds contain the well Hoori used to drink from during his visit, called Shiotsutsu no I, which is said to connect directly to the undersea palace. The five torii in the sea mark the path he took descending, each gate a depth marker toward the divine realm.

The shrine’s defining feature is its five torii gates extending into Asō Bay, two of which stand completely in the water. At high tide, these gates appear to float; at low tide, they’re accessible by foot across exposed beach. The main shrine hall follows the Ryōnagare-zukuri style common in northern Kyushu, with paired buildings under a single roof. The grounds contain two sacred cryptomeria trees estimated to be over 1,500 years old, called the Meoto-no-Kusu (Married Couple Camphor Trees), their trunks twisted together. The Shiotsutsu no I well sits to the left of the main hall — a stone-lined opening through which, according to shrine records, you can hear the sound of waves even when the sea is calm, supposedly the echo of the palace below. The shrine maintains a direct visual line across the bay to Mount Tategami, considered the island’s sacred mountain where the sea gods first descended.

• Watazumi Shrine Grand Festival (August 1) — The main annual festival features ritual dances performed on a stage erected in the shallow water between the torii gates, with the performance timed to coincide with high tide so dancers appear to float on the ocean surface.
• Shiominori (Tide-Watching Ritual) — A monthly ritual on the new moon when priests observe the tide’s movement through the torii gates to divine the coming month’s fortune for fishermen and sea travelers.
• Toyotama Festival (September 15) — Dedicated to Toyotamahime, this festival includes offerings of white shells cast into the bay as prayers for safe childbirth, referencing the goddess’s own tragic labor.

High tide, which you should time deliberately. The tide table determines whether you see a beach shrine or a water shrine — check the schedule and arrive two hours before peak high tide to watch the ocean gradually consume the torii gates. Early morning offers the best light and fewest visitors. Late autumn (November) provides dramatic weather and the clearest views across to Korea on the horizon. Avoid weekends during summer when tour groups arrive in succession. The shrine is particularly powerful during typhoon season (September-October) when the ocean’s force makes the dragon palace myth feel less metaphorical.