Kotobikiyama Shrine

Kotobikiyama Shrine, located in Same, Iinan Town, Iishi District, Shimane Prefecture, enshrines Okuninushi-no-Mikoto. The shrine stands at the foot of Mt. Kotobiki (1,014 m) at the southern end of the former Izumo Province near the border with Bingo. The summit holds a sacred rock called the Mikoto-iwa, said to be the koto of Okuninushi descended from heaven; the satomiya at the foot of the mountain faces the summit rock, preserving the ancient kannabi style of mountain worship. The Izumo no Kuni Fudoki of 733, in the Iishi District section, records that the koto of Okuninushi-Onamuchi is on Mt. Kotobiki, providing the basis for the deity identification. The founding date is not clearly recorded, but tradition traces the shrine to this Fudoki passage. From the medieval period it was venerated in the Iishi District, and in the early modern period it continued as the local tutelary at the Izumo-Bingo border. It received the village shrine rank in the Meiji era.