Udo Shrine

Udo Jingu stands inside a cave in a cliff on the Nichinan coast, so the approach descends: a path along the cliff face and down a stair with the Pacific breaking on the rocks below, then in under the overhang, where the vermilion hall stands in the shelter of the rock. The founding story places the birth of Emperor Jimmu's father here, and inside the cave are rock formations read as the breasts from which he was fed, with water dripping from them that is used to make a sweet given to expectant mothers. Outside the hall a rope circles a hollow on a rock in the surf below, and visitors buy five small clay balls called undama - men throw with the left hand, women with the right - and try to land one inside the rope for good fortune. The whole coast here is worked rock, and the shrine's position over the sea is the substance of it.

The main sights

• A shrine inside a cave - the hall standing under a cliff overhang above the surf.
• The cliff approach - a path and stair down the rock face with the sea below.
• Undama - clay balls thrown at a rope-marked hollow on a rock in the water.
• The cave formations - rock read as part of the shrine's founding account.

When to go

All year; morning light into the cave mouth. Two hours.

Good to know

The approach involves a good many steps down and back up. Buses along the Nichinan coast are infrequent. Typhoons close the site and the coast road. It is exposed to spray in rough weather.

Nearby

Aoshima is north up the coast; Obi's castle town is south-west.

Key facts