Qualla: Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest

Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest: Introduction

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Saigen Jiro, CC0. The myth goes like this: Susanoo, the storm god, and his son Isotakeru were expelled from the heavenly realm of Takamagahara. They landed in the Korean kingdom of Silla, found it unsuitable, and sailed by boat to Izumo in western Japan. There, Susanoo handed his son a bundle of tree seeds brought from heaven and gave him a mission -- plant them everywhere. Isotakeru, joined by his sisters Oyatsuhime and Tsutomuhime, traveled the length of the archipelago, sowing forests as they went, until they reached the densely wooded mountains of the Kii Peninsula. They stopped. The land was already so thick with trees that the ancient Japanese named it Kii no Kuni -- the Country of Trees. This was where the god of forests chose to stay, and this is where the shrine of Itakiso Jinja has honored him for more than thirteen centuries.

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Image: Saigen Jiro | CC0

Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest: Three Deities of Wood and Root

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Yanajin33, CC BY-SA 3.0. Itakiso Jinja does not enshrine a single kami but a family of three. Isotakeru, the principal deity, is the god of forests and forestry -- the divine planter who covered Japan in trees. Beside him stand his younger sisters: Oyatsuhime, goddess of horticulture, who governs the cul...

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Image: Yanajin33 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest: A Shrine That Predates Its Own Records

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KainanCity CP, CC BY 4.0. The origins of Itakiso Jinja are genuinely unknown. It first surfaces in the written record in 702 AD, in an entry in the Shoku Nihongi compiled under Emperor Monmu, but the shrine was already ancient by then. Tradition holds that it originally stood on the site now occupied by n...

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Image: KainanCity CP | CC BY 4.0

Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest: Centuries of Shifting Power

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Saigen Jiro, CC0. Being the top-ranked shrine of a province brought both prestige and entanglement. During the Muromachi period, from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, Itakiso Jinja developed a close relationship with Negoro-ji, a powerful Buddhist temple associated with the Shingi-Shingon se...

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Image: Saigen Jiro | CC0

Itakiso Shrine: Where the God Who Planted Japan's Forests Came to Rest: The Country of Trees, Still Standing

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit アラツク, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name Kii no Kuni -- Country of Trees -- is not just myth. Wakayama Prefecture remains one of the most densely forested regions in Japan, with mountains carpeted in cedar, cypress, and broadleaf trees that roll from the interior down to the coast. Itakiso Jinja sits in the cit...

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Image: アラツク | CC BY-SA 4.0