---
title: "Being Called"
description: "Yobareru ('to be called') is a Japanese word with no subject: no one decides to go to a place; the place or its god calls you. Takahiro Mitsui explains it through Izumo Taisha, which he has visited every year for six years."
url: https://takahiromitsui.com/gallery/vol-9
language: en
published: 2026-10-29
updated: 2026-10-29
author: "Takahiro Mitsui (三井崇央)"
author_url: https://jihanjinko.com/en/about/tm
site: "TAKAHIRO MITSUI OFFICIAL BLOG"
keywords:
  ja: ["出雲大社", "出雲大社 参拝", "出雲大社 早朝", "出雲大社 呼ばれる", "呼ばれる 神社", "神在祭", "神迎祭", "稲佐の浜", "オオクニヌシ", "大国主命", "出雲 神話", "宍道湖", "しめ縄 起源", "出雲 禁忌 四つ足", "日本語 主語がない"]
  en: ["yobareru meaning", "being called Japanese", "Japanese language no subject", "Izumo Taisha", "Izumo Grand Shrine", "Okuninushi", "kunitsukami", "Kamiari Festival", "Kamiarizuki Izumo", "Kamimukae ritual", "Inasa Beach", "Lake Shinji", "shimenawa Izumo", "Izumo mythology", "visiting Izumo Taisha early morning"]
  es: ["yobareru significado", "ser llamado japonés", "japonés sin sujeto", "Izumo Taisha", "Gran Santuario de Izumo", "Ōkuninushi", "kunitsukami", "Festival Kamiari", "Kamiarizuki Izumo", "ritual Kamimukae", "playa de Inasa", "lago Shinji", "shimenawa Izumo", "mitología de Izumo", "visitar Izumo Taisha al amanecer"]
  de: ["yobareru Bedeutung", "gerufen werden Japanisch", "Japanisch ohne Subjekt", "Izumo Taisha", "Großer Schrein von Izumo", "Ōkuninushi", "kunitsukami", "Kamiari-Fest", "Kamiarizuki Izumo", "Kamimukae-Ritual", "Strand von Inasa", "Shinji-See", "Shimenawa Izumo", "Mythologie von Izumo", "Izumo Taisha frühmorgens besuchen"]
  zh-Hans: ["出云大社", "出云大社 参拜", "神在祭", "神迎祭", "稻佐之滨", "大国主神", "出云神话", "宍道湖", "注连绳 起源", "日语 没有主语"]
cover_image: https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/vol-9-og.c09cbc38.jpg
cover_image_description: "The great straw rope hanging across the front of a shrine hall, its thick coils twisted together"
about:
  - name: "Ōkuninushi"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q276944
  - name: "Izumo Taisha"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q696362
places:
  - name: "Izumo Taisha"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q696362
  - name: "Shimane Prefecture"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q132751
mentions:
  - name: "Izumo Province"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q582846
  - name: "Sea of Japan"
    wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27092
translations:
  ja: https://takahiromitsui.com/ja/gallery/vol-9
  es: https://takahiromitsui.com/es/gallery/vol-9
  de: https://takahiromitsui.com/de/gallery/vol-9
  zh-Hans: https://takahiromitsui.com/zh/gallery/vol-9
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."
---

# Being Called

![The great straw rope hanging across the front of a shrine hall, its thick coils twisted together](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-01-2400.jpg)

There is a phrase in Japanese: yobareru, "to be called."

In spiritual circles it is everyday talk, but behind the sensibility that gave birth to it lies a world of its own, and that world rests on one fact: Japanese has no subject. The phrase carries, richly, the world the Japanese language brings into being. And when I think about it, I am one of those who have walked the Japanese archipelago for many years, going wherever I was called.

No one told me to go, and it was not my own will either. Before I knew it, I had come of my own accord to a place, stood in its wind, and offered prayers to the gods who dwell there. Before I knew it, I had been given my mission, and become aware of the purpose for which I was born into this world, into this age. If I must name a teacher, it was the gods and the places themselves.

However far you go in Japan, it lives by this sensibility, and it is as far from the sensibility of a world built on the subject, the world of a language like English, as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down. Since Meiji, for 160 years now, the Japanese have lost this power that is Japan's own.

If you are called, there is a right time. In a sense, a journey begins at the moment you are called, and so I wait until a place, or a god, calls me.

Among these, there are a few places in Japan that call me back again and again. One of them is Izumo Taisha.

It is the shrine of Okuninushi, the foremost of the kunitsukami, the gods of the land, who as "the Great Master of the Land" commands a powerful presence in the ancient myths. At some point I began to visit, and for the past six years or so I have gone every year.

Each time I go to Izumo Taisha, my back straightens and my heart is washed clean. Then, after a while, the chance to go comes again, and I make my way back. I feel like the gods from every corner of the country who, once a year, at the Kamiari Festival held at Izumo Taisha, look forward to meeting Okuninushi.

Perhaps the Kamimukae ritual, held on Inasa Beach in ancient times, began with people who had been called gathering from the sea to Izumo, entering the shrine, and talking over the making of the land and other matters.

This time, a friend of mine was called to Izumo Taisha, and I went with her. Ever since she was called, she says, her mind had been filled with nothing but Izumo. And then the day she had longed for arrived.

When I visit Izumo Taisha with others, I pass on what an elder of Izumo once told me. City dweller or not, I ask them to keep, for several days beforehand, the taboo against eating four-legged animals, and we go to pray early in the morning, body and mind honed sharp together.

All so that someone who has been called may savor to the full the chance to be welcomed by the gods of Izumo.

At the right time, with a spirit honed sharp, one is quietly welcomed. By the time the visit ends, my companion's face has brightened all at once. Each time, I feel deeply how great the power of the Izumo gods is to receive their guests.

Of course, we eat no breakfast, and the night before, no one gets carried away by the trip and eats whatever they please. Hearing this, most companions hang their heads. So afterwards I plan a meal of the fine seafood of the Izumo peninsula. Whether it is the power of the Izumo gods I cannot say, but once they hear there will be good seafood, most of them keep the rule.

Then, as we make our way around Lake Shinji, I talk about how the gods come from the sea, the myths of Izumo, the origin of the sacred straw ropes, and the world of ancient Izumo.

Doing this again and again, with no one to teach me, I have gradually come to feel that yobareru is an open word, and a deeply Japanese one.

Where will I be called next?<br />
That, as they say, only the gods know.

![A brass crest of a flower within a hexagon, set against dark wood](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-02-2400.jpg)

![Two figures walking down a long approach between dark trees](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-03-2400.jpg)

![The gables of a shrine roof against a grey sky](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-04-2400.jpg)

![A shrine gate with white lanterns and wooden offering boxes](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-05-2400.jpg)

![A woman praying alone before the offering boxes beneath white lanterns](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-06-2400.jpg)

![A long, low shrine hall with paper streamers hanging beneath its eaves](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-07-2400.jpg)

![Figures in white and pale blue, glimpsed bowing through a dark wooden lattice](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-08-2400.jpg)

![A figure in pale blue on the veranda of a towering wooden shrine hall](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-09-2400.jpg)

![Pine needles catching the light before a dark tree trunk](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-10-2400.jpg)

![The thick coils of the great straw rope, bound with braided cord](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-11-2400.jpg)

![The tassels of the great straw rope, seen from below against the trees](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-12-2400.jpg)

![A simmered fish on a white plate in a pool of dark broth](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-13-2400.jpg)

![A bowl of rice topped with sea urchin, salmon roe and seafood, among small side dishes](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-14-2400.jpg)

![Small fish hung out to dry in rows beside a shop banner](https://img.takahiromitsui.com/vol-9/takahiro-mitsui-gallery-vol-9-15-2400.jpg)