Mount Misen

Mount Misen is the 535-metre sacred peak at the heart of Itsukushima, the island in Aki Province also called Miyajima, whose soil was guarded by strict taboos of ritual purity.

In 806 the monk Kūkai climbed the mountain, founded the Daisho-in temple and lit the Kiezu-no-hi, an eternal fire kept burning there; his iron staff was said to have taken root as a plum tree, one of the seven wonders of the peak.

The mountain drew pilgrims of the Shugendō mountain cult, while Taira no Kiyomori's patronage of Itsukushima Shrine from 1168 turned the island into one of the great cult centres of the Inland Sea. The taboo on bloodshed was broken in 1555 when Mōri Motonari defeated Sue Takafusa on the island, after which Motonari rebuilt the shrine hall in 1571.