Hachiman Nada Shrine

Hachiman Nada Shrine, located at on the south-east coast of Kunisaki, is one of the peninsula’s most atmospheric sites of Shinto worship. Secreted into a pine forest aside the two-kilometre long white sand Nata Beach, the shrine faces east to Shikoku across the steely-blue Seto Inland Sea. The shrine’s origins are unclear but it has been closely associated with the Usa Jingu grand shrine from 729AD to this day. Towering torii shrine gates amongst the pines delineate the shrine’s land border while out to sea atop a rock is a vermillion torii marking its extent into the sea. Every new year, locals gather at early dawn to witness the first sun rise of the year.