Yaegaki Shrine, Shinto shrine in Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Yaegaki Shrine is a Shinto sanctuary in Matsue built in the Taisha-zukuri architectural style, featuring a distinctive wide roof with steep angles and simple wooden construction. The grounds include a main hall, auxiliary buildings, and open areas where visitors can move freely and observe the shrine's layout.
According to shrine tradition, Susanoo built a house here for Kushinada-hime after slaying the Yamata-no-orochi, and the shrine was first founded at Suga in present-day Unnan before being moved to the Sakusa Shrine grounds. It received the junior fifth rank, upper grade in 878, was renamed Yaegaki Shrine in 1878, and became a Beppyo shrine in 1981.
The shrine's name comes from Susanoo's poem about building eightfold fences for his wife Kushinada-hime. Visitors pray for marriage, childbirth and matchmaking, and the grounds hold several large wooden phalluses tied to fertility. The mirror pond divination uses paper and a coin, not a mirror.
The shrine is about 20 minutes from Matsue Station on city bus line 63 bound for Yaegaki Shrine, getting off at the Yaegaki Shrine stop, which is right by the grounds. Parking is available for 100 cars. Allow roughly 40 minutes for a visit, and note that the Mirror Pond divination works best with a 10-yen or 100-yen coin rather than a light 1-yen coin.
At the Mirror Pond behind the main hall, visitors float a thin sheet of paper from the shrine office with a coin on it; the paper's drift or quick sinking foretells whether a match lies far or near. People avoid the light 1-yen coin and use 10- or 100-yen coins, and a newt swimming across the paper is said to bring great fortune.
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