Munakata Taisha (Hetsu-miya and Shinpokan)

photo by そらみみ (Soramimi) · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by そらみみ (Soramimi) · CC BY-SA 4.0

The museum holds 80,000 finds from Okinoshima, all of them National Treasures en bloc.

If you visit the 神宝館 (Shinpokan), the complex's museum, you see some of the 80,000 finds from Okinoshima, all of them National Treasures en bloc: the largest collection of National Treasures in Japan. Women have always been barred from Okinoshima, and men landed only after purifying themselves naked in the sea; since 2018 the island has been closed to anyone who is not a priest or a researcher.

Munakata Taisha is a complex of three shrines (the Okitsu-miya on the island of Okinoshima, the Nakatsu-miya on the island of Ōshima, and the Hetsu-miya on the mainland, described here) dedicated to three sister goddesses. In 2017 the group, with its archaeological sites, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name 「神宿る島」宗像・沖ノ島と関連遺産群 (the island where a god dwells: Munakata, Okinoshima and the associated sites).

ℹ️ Okinoshima cannot be visited: since 2018 access has been forbidden to anyone who is not a priest or a researcher. On the mainland you can visit the Hetsu-miya and the Shinpokan museum.

🚉 宗像大社前 · 5 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org

All series · Open the map