Hitachi Izumo Taisha

Before Hitachi Izumo Taisha became a stop on any list, it was — and still is — a working place of worship in Ibaraki.

In 1992 the great shrine of Izumo in Shimane divided its deity and enshrined it here, on a hillside beside Route 50 in Kasama — which makes this one of very few shrines in Japan whose founding is within living memory and whose parent institution is a thousand kilometres away. The deity is Okuninushi, the god of marriage and good relationships, and people come for the same reason they go to the original.

The architecture follows Izumo: a taisha-zukuri hall and, in front of the worship hall, an enormous straw shimenawa rope of the kind almost nowhere outside Shimane attempts. Coins are pushed up into its underside by visitors, which is technically discouraged and universally done. Clapping here is four times rather than the usual two, following Izumo practice. It is a strange thing to find on a national highway in Ibaraki and it is entirely sincere.