The great torii which forms the sea-gate of Hinomisaki is of white
granite, and severely beautiful. Through it we pass up the main street
of the village--surprisingly wide for about a thousand yards, after
which it narrows into a common highway which slopes up a wooded hill
and disappears under the shadow of trees. On the right, as you enter
the street, is a long vision of grey wooden houses with awnings and
balconies--little shops, little two-story dwellings of fishermen--and
ranging away in front of these other hosts of bamboo frames from which
other millions of freshly caught cuttlefish are hanging. On the other
side of the street rises a cyclopean retaining wall, massive as the wall
of a daimyo's castle, and topped by a lofty wooden parapet pierced
with gates; and above it tower the roofs of majestic buildings, whose
architecture strongly resembles that of the structures of Kitzuki; and
behind all appears a beautiful green background of hills. This is the
Hinomisaki-jinja. But one must walk some considerable distance up the
road to reach the main entrance of the court, which is at the farther
end of the inclosure, and is approached by an imposing broad flight of
granite steps.
The great court is a surprise. It is almost as deep as the outer court
of the Kitzuki-no-oho-yashiro, though not nearly so wide; and a paved
cloister forms two sides of it. From the court gate a broad paved
walk leads to the haiden and shamusho at the opposite end of the
court--spacious and dignified structures above whose roofs appears
the quaint and massive gable of the main temple, with its fantastic
cross-beams. This temple, standing with its back to the sea, is the
shrine of the Goddess of the Sun. On the right side of the main court,
as you enter, another broad flight of steps leads up to a loftier court,
where another fine group of Shinto buildings stands--a haiden and a
miya; but these are much smaller, like miniatures of those below. Their
woodwork also appears to be quite new. The upper miya is the shrine of
the god Susano-o, [1]--brother of Amaterasu-oho-mi-Kami.