Oyamazumi Shrine

Oyamazumi Shrine is the first shrine of old Iyo Province, and it has long been honoured as Nihon Sochinju (guardian shrine of all Japan). It enshrines Oyamatsumi no Okami, a mountain god in the old chronicles, and the Iyo fudoki also calls him a god of the sea and of crossings. The shrine moved to its present site at Miyaura in 719. Its main hall and worship hall were rebuilt in the early Muromachi period and are Important Cultural Properties.

The camphor in front of the main hall is the sacred tree. Tradition says Ochi no Mikoto planted it before Emperor Jimmu's eastern campaign, and the shrine gives its age as about 2,600 years. Three hills rise behind the halls, and an old shrine map shows them as the sacred mountains of the three shrines. Washigato-san is the tallest of them and the highest point on the island at 436.5 metres.

About 80 percent of the armour and weapons in Japan designated National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties are kept in the treasure hall, and that is why Omishima is called the island of national treasures. Japan's oldest armour, from the mid-Heian period, is here. So is a cuirass that shrine tradition says Tsuruhime wore in the Omishima battle of 1541, and she was the daughter of the shrine's priest Ohori Yasumochi.