North Miyazaki · TakachihoNo.1236★★Open in map →

Takachiho Shrine

cultureOff the trail — and worth it

The head shrine of the Takachiho district, set among old cedar above the town. Its main hall and a pair of cast-iron guardian lions are national Important Cultural Properties, and the hall beside them stages kagura every night of the year.

FromNobeoka Station
~1 h 45 minBus from Nobeoka, then walk
Get off atTakachiho Bus Center (Miyazaki Kotsu)
From there
Takachiho Shrine

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Takachiho is not a secret. The gorge below is one of Kyushu's best-known sights and its car parks fill by mid-morning. The shrine runs on a different clock. Day trips leave on an afternoon coach, so the kagura hall plays mainly to people who stayed the night, and the grounds themselves are at their calmest once the gorge has drawn the crowd away.

Where it is

18 more notes in Miyazaki · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Chichibu-sugithe great cedar said to have been planted by Hatakeyama Shigetada on Yoritomo's behalf
Meoto-sugitwo cedars grown together at the root, circled three times hand in hand for a wish
The worship hall and main hallthe listed hall behind, carved in detail with legends belonging to this valley
The shizume stonea stone beside the main hall, prayed to for the settling of trouble and unrest
The kagura halla matted hall on the grounds, given over to four dances each evening

How to actually get there

Nobeoka Station → Takachiho Bus Center (Miyazaki Kotsu route bus, about 1 h 30 min).
Takachiho Bus Center → Takachiho Shrine (about 15 min uphill on foot).
Chichibu-sugi and Meoto-sugi → the worship hall → the shizume stone beside the main hall.
Take a seat in the kagura hall for the 20:00 performance.

Miyazaki Kotsu route bus from Nobeoka Station: Nobeoka Station →(Miyazaki Kotsu route bus, about 1 h 30 min)→ Takachiho Bus Center, then about 15 minutes uphill on foot. Nobeoka, on the JR Nippo Line, is the practical rail gateway, because Takachiho has had no railway since its local line closed.
Return from Takachiho Bus Center: Buses for Nobeoka leave from the same terminal. Departures are spaced out rather than frequent and thin out through the evening, so an evening performance realistically means staying the night in Takachiho — settle the bed before the ticket. The Kumamoto and Fukuoka coaches use the same terminal.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The shrine sits on a wooded shelf above Mitai, the town at the centre of Takachiho, in the northern corner of Miyazaki. It is counted as the head shrine of the eighty-eight shrines of the district, and the imperial court's national histories already name it. Two things here carry state designation as Important Cultural Properties: the main hall standing behind the worship hall, and a pair of cast-iron guardian lions in the shrine's keeping. The grounds are also a stand of old cedar, one pair grown together at the root and one giant planted, by tradition, by a Kamakura warrior sent here in his lord's stead. Beside all of it sits a plain matted hall, and that is where the dancing happens.

How to enjoy it

The kagura runs from 20:00 to 21:00 in the hall on the grounds, and the programme is fixed: Tajikarao, Uzume, Totori and Goshintai. Seats are booked online in advance or taken at the desk on the night. The hall is matted, so plan on an hour sitting on the floor.

Background & history

Shrine tradition places the first building here in the reign of Emperor Suinin, some nineteen centuries ago, and the court histories list the shrine from early on. The present main hall is later and far better documented: a five-bay nagare-zukuri hall completed in 1778 under Naito Masanobu, lord of the Nobeoka domain, in worked zelkova with dense carved detail. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004. The pair of cast-iron guardian lions the shrine keeps carries the same designation, and is traditionally said to have been offered by Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Before you go

Cash: Entry to the grounds costs nothing. The kagura is ticketed, either booked online ahead of the date or taken at the desk on the night, and the same-day allocation is the smaller of the two.
Good to know: The nightly kagura pauses on 31 December and 1 January, and again on 22 and 23 November, when the shrine holds its own kagura festival in place of the visitor performance. The walk between the terminal and the shrine is on ordinary town roads with a climb in it.
Another way: From Kumamoto the Takachiho-go express coach reaches the same terminal in about three hours; it runs once a day and needs a reservation. From Fukuoka the Gokase-go coach serves the same stop.
After you get off: From Takachiho Bus Center the shrine lies southwest and uphill, about 15 minutes on foot; the prefectural tourism site gives about 3 minutes by car for anyone driving.