Miyazaki Shrine (Birth of Japan Mythology Site)

Miyazaki Shrine, known locally as Miyazaki Jingu, is dedicated to Emperor Jimmu, the legendary first emperor of Japan described in the 8th-century chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as having departed from Hyuga Province, the historical name for the Miyazaki region, on his eastward campaign to found the imperial line. While the current shrine buildings date mainly from a major reconstruction completed in 1907 and later rebuilt in the 1930s using cypress wood in the shinmei-zukuri architectural style, the site has been associated with Jimmu veneration since at least the Meiji period, when state Shinto elevated the shrine's status. The main hall, worship hall, and approach are set within a forest of some 40,000 trees, many planted during the early 20th-century expansion, creating a solemn, unpainted-wood aesthetic typical of Ise-linked shrine architecture. The shrine's treasure hall, Chinkokan, exhibits Kofun-period artifacts, archival photographs, and objects related to Jimmu-era mythology, presented thematically around the founding narrative rather than in strict chronological order. Restoration and maintenance follow traditional Shinto practice of periodic renewal of timber structures, and the current buildings, while not ancient in fabric, occupy a site of deep symbolic continuity tied to Japan's founding mythology. The shrine remains an active site of worship and seasonal festivals rather than a preserved ruin, distinguishing it from purely archaeological sites elsewhere in the prefecture.