Itsukushima Shrine

Itsukushima Shrine tickets and tours: which one to book

Itsukushima Shrine charges a small entrance fee, paid at the gate, and the island levies a visitor tax collected with your ferry ticket. There is no need to book in advance: the ferries from Miyajimaguchi, a short train ride from Hiroshima, run every few minutes and take about ten minutes to cross. Most people visit independently, but several kinds of tour exist. Hiroshima day tours usually combine the Peace Memorial Park and museum in the morning with Miyajima in the afternoon, covering train, ferry and a guide. Small-group walking tours on the island explain the shrine and the old merchant streets of the town, and some extend up Mount Misen by ropeway to the summit and its temple halls.

On the island itself, a ride in a rickshaw pulled by a guide is a gentle way to see the shrine approach and the backstreets, and is good for anyone who finds walking hard. Guided trips generally include transport from Hiroshima and the guide, while the shrine fee, the ropeway and lunch are often paid on the day. The Japan Rail Pass covers the JR train and JR ferry. Independent visitors should check the tide tables before choosing their day, since they decide whether the shrine appears to float or you can walk out to the great torii.

Visiting Itsukushima Shrine: what to see and how to behave

Itsukushima, usually called Miyajima, has been sacred since ancient times; tradition dates the first shrine to 593. Its present form owes most to Taira no Kiyomori, the powerful 12th-century statesman who made it the shrine of his clan and built the complex out over the tidal flats so that the holy island itself would not be disturbed. Most of the halls were rebuilt after fires and storms, and the shrine is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several National Treasures. The shrine is a chain of vermilion halls on stilts joined by covered corridors. At high tide the sea flows beneath them and the whole complex seems to float; at low tide the posts stand in wet sand.

A one-way route leads you through the corridors past the main hall, dedicated to three sea goddesses, and the open platform from which you look straight out to the great torii. Look out for the stage for Noh drama built over the water, one of very few of its kind, and the arched bridge reserved for messengers of the emperor. The torii itself, the current one dating from 1875, stands on its own weight in the bay, without foundations. At low tide you can walk out and stand beneath it. Above the shrine, a five-storey pagoda and the large unfinished hall of a thousand mats begun by Toyotomi Hideyoshi are worth the short climb. Bow at the gate, rinse your hands at the water basin, and do not feed the deer, which wander freely and will eat paper.

Itsukushima Shrine: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The shrine opens at 6.30 am and closes in the early evening, with slightly varying hours through the year; check the official site. The single most important factor is the tide. Aim to see the shrine at high tide for the floating effect, and plan a low tide for walking out to the torii; with a few hours on the island you can usually catch both.

Arriving on an early ferry beats the day-tour crowds, and staying overnight lets you see the torii lit up at dusk. Spring cherry blossom and the autumn maple leaves in Momijidani Park are the loveliest seasons, and also the busiest. The Kangensai festival in summer, when decorated boats carry music across the bay at night, is the great event of the year, and the New Year draws huge numbers of worshippers. Allow an hour for the shrine and a full day for the island, adding Daisho-in temple and Mount Misen.