Miyajima 宮島 Photo Gallery by Matthew Haswell at pbase.com

Miyajima 宮島

A mountainous island and historic pilgrimage site set in the Seto Inland Sea southwest of Hiroshima city, long known for its sacred and now UNESCO-listed Itsukushima Shrine. Populated by deer thought to be messengers of the gods and once so holy that commoners could not set foot on island (having to approach the shrine by boat), the island maintains a lush primeval forest, with the sacred mountain of Misen at its center.

The vast majority of these shots are from August 2008, apart from a few at the top dating from July of 2004.

Approaching Miyajima	Deer outside the ferry terminal	Stone torii leading to the shrine	The floating torii of Miyajima at high tide
Islands in the Sea of Aki	Distant Hiroshima	Arriving at the ferry port	The JR boat preparing to leave the dock
A gloomy Miyajima in the distance	Ferries going and returning	Looking back to the mainland terminal area	View of Itsukushima and Senjō-kaku on the approach
Seaweed-lined beach on the way to the shrine	Stone torii along the main path to Itsukushima	The floating torii shortly after low tide	Girl wading out from the torii
View of Itsukushima-jinja at low tide	Timid crab out on the algae	Taking in the view from the statuary	Tourists wading amidst the flowing tide
A lazy deer enjoys the view	Entering Itsukushima Shrine	Vermilion interior wall with paper lanterns	Row of lanterns on the exterior of Itsukushima
Trickling tidal pool leading towards the gate	Main "pier" of the shrine	East wing of Itsukushima with Senjō-kaku	View across the stage to the torii
Rear of the shrine's nō stage with Misen rising behind	Lantern at the end of the pier	Row of stone lanterns on the spit	Cuddling pair of deer
Glimpse of the torii from the spit	The great torii and passing ferry	Petite Kiyomori-jinja	Main hall at Daigan-ji
Rooftops of the Treasure House and far Sanjō-kaku	Tahō-tō pagoda	Bridge leading to Daishō-in	Looking down on Daishō-in's Rakan slope
Anpanman makes an appearance at the shrine	Steps up from the Nio-mon with prayer wheels	Sloping approach and view over Miyajima town	Kannon statue below Maniden Hall, Daishō-in
Tengu statue beside steps to Maniden	Collapsed path formerly leading to Misen	View out over Miyajima town	Jizō statues near Maniden
Arched roof of Daishō-in's Kannon-dō	Maniden Hall with Kannon-dō below, Daishō-in	Little statuettes beside the Hakkaku Manpuku Hall	Praying mantis outside a temple building
Lone deer escaping the heat at the shrine	Group of Rakan statues	Rows of statues along the Rakan slope	Steps ascending to Senjō-kaku
Detail of Senjō-kaku's pagoda	Five-tiered pagoda at Senjō-kaku	View of the pagoda from within the hall	Looking down on the rooftops of Itsukushima
Old painting within Senjō-kaku's hall	Group of paintings, Senjō-kaku	Paintings hanging over the pillars of Senjō-kaku	The world's largest shakushi (rice scoop)
Grilling oysters outside a restaurant	Anago-don (conger eel rice bowl) set	Freshly grilled oysters with lemon	View of Itsukushima-jinja at high tide
Tidal pool around the shrine with Senjō-kaku pagoda	Itsukushima-jinja at high tide with the floating torii	Rising up over Miyajima on the ropeway	Path away from the upper ropeway station
The barren summit of Misen	View from the summit over the island and surrounds	Young stag outside Reika-dō on Misen	Family of Japanese macaques on Misen
Late afternoon over the floating torii	Tourists ambling through the ebbing tide	Doe just offshore from the torii	Saying farewell to the island

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