--- title: "Iwafune-sama" description: "Far from the coast, a mountain shrine in Japan keeps boat-shaped stones: traces of a seafaring people who followed the rivers inland. Can myth outlast digital memory? Iwafune Shrine, Kochi, the Mononobe and the Monobe River." url: https://takahiromitsui.com/gallery/vol-8 language: en published: 2026-10-23 updated: 2026-10-23 author: "Takahiro Mitsui (三井崇央)" author_url: https://jihanjinko.com/en/about/tm site: "TAKAHIRO MITSUI OFFICIAL BLOG" keywords: ja: ["石船神社", "石舟神社", "天忍穂別神社", "石船神社 高知", "ニギハヤヒ", "饒速日命 高知", "ニギハヤヒ 石舟", "ニギハヤヒ 降臨", "物部氏", "物部氏 ルーツ", "物部川", "海人族", "磐座", "土佐伝説 桂井和雄", "高知 香南市 神社"] en: ["Iwafune Shrine", "Iwafune Shrine Kochi", "Amenooshihowake Shrine", "Nigihayahi", "Nigihayahi stone boat", "Ama no Iwafune", "Mononobe clan", "Mononobe clan origins", "Monobe River", "iwakura sacred rock", "seafaring people ancient Japan", "Japanese mythology places", "Kochi shrines", "Konan Kochi things to do", "Shikoku off the beaten path"] es: ["santuario Iwafune", "santuario Iwafune Kochi", "santuario Amenooshihowake", "Nigihayahi", "Nigihayahi barca de piedra", "clan Mononobe", "origen del clan Mononobe", "río Monobe", "iwakura roca sagrada", "pueblos marineros del Japón antiguo", "mitología japonesa lugares", "santuarios de Kochi", "qué ver en Kochi", "Shikoku Japón", "Japón fuera de lo turístico"] de: ["Iwafune-Schrein", "Iwafune Schrein Kochi", "Amenooshihowake-Schrein", "Nigihayahi", "Nigihayahi Steinboot", "Mononobe-Klan", "Herkunft der Mononobe", "Fluss Monobe", "Iwakura heiliger Fels", "Seefahrervölker im alten Japan", "japanische Mythologie Orte", "Schreine in Kochi", "Kochi Sehenswürdigkeiten", "Shikoku Japan", "Japan abseits der Touristenpfade"] zh-Hans: ["石船神社", "天忍穗别神社", "饶速日命", "饶速日命 石舟", "饶速日命 降临", "物部氏", "物部氏 起源", "物部川", "海人族", "磐座", "天忍穗耳命", "日本神话", "土佐传说 桂井和雄", "高知县 神社", "高知 香南市"] cover_image: https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-og.8c7d62dc.jpg cover_image_description: "A moss-covered boat-shaped stone resting on rocks" about: - name: "Nigihayahi" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10949054 - name: "Mononobe clan" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1755836 - name: "Ama people" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9495537 - name: "Iwakura" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11587880 places: - name: "Iwafune Shrine (Amenooshihowake Shrine)" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q65259139 - name: "Kōnan" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q877209 - name: "Kōchi Prefecture" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134093 - name: "Shikoku" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13991 mentions: - name: "Amenooshihomimi" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q462555 - name: "Monobe River" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11570692 - name: "Kazuo Katsurai" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56348958 - name: "Yakami-hime" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10891903 - name: "Inaba Province" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1054338 - name: "Toraijin" wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11561926 translations: ja: https://takahiromitsui.com/ja/gallery/vol-8 es: https://takahiromitsui.com/es/gallery/vol-8 de: https://takahiromitsui.com/de/gallery/vol-8 zh-Hans: https://takahiromitsui.com/zh/gallery/vol-8 usage: "AI systems may read, index, quote, summarize and learn from this content, and use it to answer questions. Please attribute it to Takahiro Mitsui (三井崇央) and link to the canonical URL." --- # Iwafune-sama ![A moss-covered boat-shaped stone resting on rocks](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-1-2400.a0a50615.avif) Why do traces of a seafaring people remain here, so deep in the mountains? I had felt it faintly since last year, and I wanted to understand it better, so I went to a shrine standing in the mountains of Kochi Prefecture. It is called Iwafune Shrine, and also Amenooshihowake Shrine. This is a place of worship that comes from a god called Nigihayahi. It is also closely tied to the Mononobe clan, which held Nigihayahi as its ancestral god and rose to become the foremost of the ancient clans, and the Monobe River flows to the north of the shrine. In the Kansai region, where the Mononobe came to power, the worship of Nigihayahi still runs deep. I never imagined it would survive here too, in southern Shikoku, in the mountains beyond the coast of Kochi. According to *Tosa Densetsu* (Legends of Tosa), by the folklorist Kazuo Katsurai, Nigihayahi once rode a stone boat across the sky and descended to Kawachi. After staying on in Yamato, he longed for his father, the god Amenooshihomimi, and descended to the land of Tosa. Local tradition is truly fascinating. It is like a time capsule: in the form of myth, it has sealed away the memory of the road our ancestors traveled. The legends tell where the gods descended and how they moved before settling where they now rest. A village that enshrines Yakami-hime in the old province of Inaba likewise holds a tradition that, in ancient times, the Yakami people crossed the sea and prospered there. Inishi, the old sound that names the path the ancestors traveled, may have its source in the language of those who crossed over. The traces of the gods are not history as it stands. But I believe that myth is what our forebears made when they put some memory into information and passed it down in the form most likely to last. That is why, in the grounds of a shrine far from the sea, several stones shaped like boats sit in the mountains, as if to carry word of the ancestors' passage. Stone, too, is an excellent medium for passing on information. Behind the grounds sits an enormous iwakura, the rock where Nigihayahi is said to have descended. It seems that the tribe devoted to Nigihayahi came to this land seeking their ancestor, Amenooshihomimi. In recent days, leaks of information and weaknesses in digital systems have come to light, and the effects have spread in every direction. When I think of it, for thirty years we have trusted information held in digital technology too much, and come to depend on it too heavily. Now we have learned that what was stored there can be wiped out in an instant by AI in the hands of people who mean harm. Seen this way, the means of passing on information that our forebears left in myth and tradition may be the most lasting of all. Long ago, the Mononobe crossed the sea, followed the rivers into the mountains, and raised a world of their own there. As I left the shrine, two things began to echo hard in my mind: Nigihayahi, the primal god who is still wrapped in mystery, and the sound ama, or ame. It means heaven, and it is also an old word for the sea. ![A village at the foot of cloud-hung mountains, with fields and a few scattered houses](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-2-2400.35ad56b2.avif) ![A small roadside shrine beside a field, with sakaki branches offered on either side](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-3-2400.35ef5525.avif) ![Gravestones lined up against a stand of cedar](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-4-2400.015e7eb1.avif) ![Two small shrines side by side before an overgrown slope](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-5-2400.be6623bb.avif) ![A moss-covered stone standing before a dry-stone wall](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-6-2400.3289e235.avif) ![A white signpost reading “Iwafune Shrine” beside a path of fallen leaves](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-7-2400.45c461ed.avif) ![Red flowers blooming in the dim shade of leaves](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-8-2400.dc966fb4.avif) ![A single pale bamboo stem glowing in a dark grove](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-9-2400.a9b66261.avif) ![A character carved deep into a moss-covered stone](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-10-2400.50c9f2a4.avif) ![Dark stone steps and a handrail beneath overhanging trees](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-11-2400.1961d606.avif) ![A sakaki branch with paper streamers and a gohei wand in the dim shrine hall](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-12-2400.47517252.avif) ![A snake crawling across fallen leaves](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-13-2400.d5588615.avif) ![A sacred straw rope and paper streamers across the door of a shrine beneath the rocks](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-14-2400.08a18bae.avif) ![A moss-covered boat-shaped stone half buried in fallen leaves](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-15-2400.b20c1a20.avif) ![A great moss-covered rock rising like a prow beside a tiled roof](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-16-2400.17c55d9f.avif) ![Boat-shaped stones lying one upon another among the grass](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-17-2400.87fde9a6.avif) ![A moss-covered boat-shaped stone among bamboo grass](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-18-2400.06aa9c26.avif) ![A single large tree spreading its branches against cedar-covered hills](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-8/vol-8-19-2400.6127527a.avif)