Benten Island Shrine at Inasa-no-hama

Benten Island, called Bentenjima, is the small rock islet that rises from the sand at the northern end of Inasa-no-hama, the wide, celebrated beach about a kilometre west of Izumo Taisha. Crowned with a torii gate and a tiny shrine that enshrines Toyotamahiko-no-mikoto, the islet is one of the most photographed and most sacred spots on the whole Izumo coast. Once surrounded by the sea, it now stands just back from the waterline as the beach has widened, so that visitors can walk right up to its base and look up at the gate silhouetted against the sky and the Sea of Japan.

Inasa-no-hama is soaked in myth. It is traditionally identified as the shore where the heavenly envoy Takemikazuchi came to negotiate the kuni-yuzuri, the transfer of earthly rule, with Okuninushi, the great deity of Izumo, an episode that lies at the heart of the country's founding stories. Even more famously, the beach is the stage for the Kamimukae-shinji, the rite of welcoming the gods, held on the night before the start of Kamiarizuki, the Month of the Gods. As the eight million deities of Japan are believed to arrive in Izumo from across the sea, priests light a sacred fire on the sand and greet them here before leading them in procession to Izumo Taisha. To stand on this beach is to stand at the doorway through which the gods enter Izumo.

There is a much-loved custom attached to the beach. Visitors gather a small handful of its sand and carry it to the Soga-no-yashiro within the grounds of Izumo Taisha, where they exchange it for sand that has been blessed there; the returned sand is kept at home as a potent charm for protection and good fortune. Doing this links the beach, the islet and the Grand Shrine into a single small pilgrimage that many travellers find deeply satisfying.

The experience itself is simple and open to everyone. The beach is flat and easy, the islet requires no climbing, and the setting is free and open at all hours. It is a place to slow down: to watch the surf, to feel the wind that supposedly carries the gods ashore, and above all to see the sun go down. Inasa-no-hama is regularly named among Japan's finest sunset spots, and on a clear evening the sky and sea turn to fire behind the torii in a scene that alone justifies the walk. Allow around forty-five minutes, longer if you stay for the sunset.

Summer evenings and the atmospheric days around the autumn Kamiari season are the highlights, though the beach is beautiful year round. To reach it, ride the Ichibata Electric Railway Taisha Line to Izumo Taisha-mae Station, then walk about twenty minutes west through the town and past Izumo Taisha to the shore; a small community bus and nearby car parks make it accessible for those who prefer not to walk. Few places tie landscape, legend and living ritual together as completely as this quiet islet on the beach of the gods.