Kansai, Japan · Sea / Beach, Countryside / satoyama
Home to Japan's most sacred Shinto shrine, rebuilt every 20 years, along a coastline known for pearl farming.
Train — Direct train from Osaka or Nagoya
🧭 Pilgrimage
Japan's most sacred Shinto shrine, rebuilt every 20 years.
Since the year 690, Ise has been built again in full on the adjoining plot every twenty years, with all its treasures remade by hand; the next will be in 2033, and the preparatory rites, such as the hauling of the logs, are already taking place and can be watched.
The canonical view of Ago Bay and its dozens of islands, with a terrace and the national park visitor centre.
Seafood grilled over an open hearth in a traditional hut of the ama, the legendary female divers of this coast, while they share stories of their trade.
Thick, extremely soft noodles served with no broth, just a dark tamari sauce: the opposite of what you expect from udon, and the pilgrim food of this area.
A small ama shrine in Osatsu that, by tradition, grants one single wish to each woman; this is the home of the star-and-grid amulet the divers wear sewn onto their suits.
A sacred dance with live court music can be commissioned, dedicated to the visitor's specific request, in the kagura hall of the inner shrine.
The route that linked Ise with Kumano; the Magose pass preserves the best-kept cobbled stretch through cedars on the entire Kodo.
Two rocks joined by a sacred rope off the coast of Futami, symbolizing the divine couple who founded Japan, next to a shrine dedicated to good-luck frogs.
The birthplace of modern pearl cultivation, with demonstrations by ama pearl divers.
In the Edo period, waves of millions of peasants made the pilgrimage to Ise without permission, living on alms along the road. The ritual order still holds today: the outer shrine first and the inner shrine afterwards, purifying yourself in the Isuzu river.
Dedicated to the goddess of agriculture, traditionally visited before the Inner Shrine.
Paddling among the pearl culture rafts and the islands of this ria coast, the best way to understand why pearls are farmed here.
It explains that rebuilding and displays a full-size replica of a quarter of the main shrine, which is otherwise impossible to see up close, alongside the crafts that remake the sacred treasures.
Bonito marinated in sauce over rice, a dish fishermen invented to eat on the boat, and the spiny lobster that gives this coast its name.
One of Japan's largest aquariums and the only one in the country to house manatees, with more than 1,200 marine species.
From November to March, huts by the water where you eat all the grilled oysters you want, run by the oyster farmers themselves.
A work by Hiroshi Naito and one of Japan's great contemporary wooden buildings, with sixty thousand objects of fishing culture inside.
A fishing village that filled with painters at the foot of its lighthouse, and another lighthouse further south on clifftops, two of the most painted corners of the Mie coast.
Three times a year (May, September and December) the rope joining the two married rocks is renewed by hand in a ceremony open to the public; Futami was also the purification stop before going up to Ise.
Signposted routes between Kashikojima and the southern beaches, along a ria coast with very little traffic.
In October the year's first rice is offered to the goddess in Ise's most important annual rite, with a night procession.
A Buddhist temple atop Mount Asama, regarded as the spiritual guardian of the Grand Shrine of Ise, with views over the whole of Ise-Shima Bay.
A hot-spring resort with architecture by Kerry Hill overlooking the bay, the region's most ambitious wellness project.
One of Japan's three great wagyu is raised in Matsusaka, half an hour by train from Ise; book ahead and expect an expensive meal.
A recreated Edo-period inn town street right next to the entrance of the Grand Shrine.
A theme park devoted to Spain in the middle of Japan, with a main square, flamenco and churros; it spent years half forgotten until a viral 2022 collaboration with VTubers brought it back to life.
On 11 July, all the ama of Sugashima island dive in at once and the winner is whoever brings up a double abalone: the divers' own festival.
A custom seen only here: houses keep the New Year sacred rope hanging all 365 days, with a wooden tablet, instead of taking it down in January.
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