Shimane Peninsula
Jagged coasts, windswept cliffs, fabulous wave-carved hollows, and countless tiny islands are together the setting of ancient myths: the Shimane Peninsula. Here, the god Yatsukamizu Omitsu is said to have pulled four pieces of land from across the Sea of Japan and anchored them with two great stakes that became the mountains of Daisen and Sanbe. This land, largely separated from the Japanese mainland by Lake Shinji and Lake Nakaumi, was even more remote 2,000 years ago, when marshy wetlands covered most of the connecting plain. Along the coast, geological curiosities like the columnar joints of rhyolite at Hinomisaki and wave-eroded sea caves such as Kaka no Kukedo support the landscape’s ancient associations with the otherworldly.