editorial

How a journey to the spiritual heart of Japan can reveal quiet truths about oneself.
<figure id="attachment_154362" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154362" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-154362" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Shinto-Priests-and-Grounds-of-Ise-Jingu.jpeg" alt="Shinto priests at the Ise Jingu shrine complex; a pebbled path leads to the second torii gate at Ise Jingu and the inner shrine beyond." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Shinto-Priests-and-Grounds-of-Ise-Jingu.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Shinto-Priests-and-Grounds-of-Ise-Jingu-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Shinto-Priests-and-Grounds-of-Ise-Jingu-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Shinto-Priests-and-Grounds-of-Ise-Jingu-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154362" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Shinto priests at the Ise Jingu shrine complex; a pebbled path leads to the second torii gate at Ise Jingu and the inner shrine beyond. (Photos: Visit Iseshima Bureau)</figcaption></figure>
I first learned about Ise-Shima because of a hotel. This was almost a decade ago with the opening of <a href="https://www.aman.com/resorts/amanemu?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanemu</a>, a discreet hot-spring resort that seemed to check every Aman box: serene, understated, and picturesquely perched above isle-dotted Ago Bay. But it was the lore of the land surrounding it that truly captivated me. Anchored by both the ancient Ise Jingu shrine complex and the enduring presence of the ama—female free divers who for untold generations have gathered shellfish and pearls from the bay’s clear waters—this corner of Honshu’s Pacific-facing Mie Prefecture is widely regarded as the spiritual heart of <a href="https://destinasian.com/travel-guide/japan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Japan</a>. That the mythical and the elemental remain so intertwined in modern life gave the region an otherworldly pull long before I ever set foot there.
So last October, when I finally traveled to Ise-Shima by train from Nagoya, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would live up to expectations. Any doubts evaporated the moment I stepped through the unpainted torii gates marking the threshold to Ise Jingu, ushering me into a lush, protected forest of towering hinoki and sugi trees that immediately hushed the outside world.
Ise Jingu’s significance reveals itself subtly. As the spiritual home of the sun goddess Amaterasu, ancestral deity of Japan’s imperial family, it is regarded as the country’s most sacred shrine—a sanctum many Japanese aspire to visit at least once in their lifetime. Pilgrims have walked these same gravel paths for centuries, the rhythmic crunch underfoot and passage through the grounds offering a meditation of their own. Most remarkable, however, is that the inner and outer shrines are rebuilt every 20 years in an extraordinary ritual of regeneration that embodies the Shinto concept of tokowaka—the belief that while nothing lasts forever, its spirit can be preserved through continuous renewal.
Later, still absorbing the sheer devotion and craftsmanship involved in rebuilding an entire shrine by hand every two decades, I found myself at lunch witnessing a far more ordinary expression of respect. We had just been seated for a plate of local tekone sushi—thick-cut tuna and bonito—at a restaurant off Oharai-machi, the lively street leading to the shrine, when someone spotted a housefly. My Japanese companions immediately rose, arms outstretched, coaxing the insect toward the door with almost choreographed restraint. There was no swatting, no stomping—just an amusing, kyogen-like pantomime to usher it outside, reflecting a reluctance to harm even a speck of life in the shadow of a shrine devoted to nature. I stifled my laughter at the accidental theatrics, realizing it captured something essential here: reverence doesn’t require monumental acts; it can be expressed in the smallest gestures.
That small, almost invisible act stayed with me as we moved on to the shores of Ago Bay, where reverence assumed a far tougher, salt-stung form. Here, for at least 2,000 years, the ama divers have braved these chilly waters to harvest the ocean’s riches, including kelp, turban shells, spiny lobster, sea urchins, and awabi, the prized abalone ritually offered to Ise Jingu.
At Kashikojima, a small island linked by bridges to the nearby mainland, we met 71-year-old Kimiyo Hayashi for a free-diving session. She is one of just 300 ama still active in the region, with fewer young women willing to master this grueling craft. Nationwide, about 2,000 such divers remain—roughly half their 1970s peak.
<figure id="attachment_154361" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154361" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-154361" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Rubbing-Mugwort-on-Diving-Goggles-and-Amanemu-Entrance-Lobby.jpeg" alt="Ama free diver Kimiyo Hayashi rubbing mugwort on her goggles; the entrance lobby at Amanemu." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Rubbing-Mugwort-on-Diving-Goggles-and-Amanemu-Entrance-Lobby.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Rubbing-Mugwort-on-Diving-Goggles-and-Amanemu-Entrance-Lobby-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Rubbing-Mugwort-on-Diving-Goggles-and-Amanemu-Entrance-Lobby-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Rubbing-Mugwort-on-Diving-Goggles-and-Amanemu-Entrance-Lobby-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154361" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Ama free diver Kimiyo Hayashi rubbing mugwort on her goggles; the entrance lobby at Amanemu. (Photos: Karen Tee; Courtesy of Amanemu)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_154359" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154359" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-154359" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Ama-Freediver-and-Sushi-at-Amanemu-.jpeg" alt="An ama diver descending to the seafloor; sushi and sashimi at Amanemu highlight the bounty of local seafood." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Ama-Freediver-and-Sushi-at-Amanemu-.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Ama-Freediver-and-Sushi-at-Amanemu--300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Ama-Freediver-and-Sushi-at-Amanemu--1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Ama-Freediver-and-Sushi-at-Amanemu--768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154359" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: An ama diver descending to the seafloor; sushi and sashimi at Amanemu highlight the bounty of local seafood. (Photos: Visit Iseshima Bureau; Courtesy of Amanemu)</figcaption></figure>
Friendly and spry, Hayashi moved with an ease that belied the arduousness of her work. She began diving at 15 and, armed with only goggles, a metal chisel, and her breath, has spent a lifetime plunging beneath choppy swells, guided by instincts honed over decades of reading the sea. Each descent demands discipline, as well as restraint in taking only what the waters can spare.
I was humbled the moment we slipped into the bay, dressed in modern wetsuits but still wearing traditional white tenugui headscarves. Though I’m a decent swimmer, I quickly realized that staying composed beneath the surf required serious skill. My attempt at a duck dive lasted mere seconds. Hayashi, by contrast, descended with a ballerina’s poise, effortlessly gliding five meters down to the seafloor on a single breath to sift through the seagrass for shells. At her best, she can reach depths of 20 meters.
Later, when I asked how she prepares mentally for entering the water, she waved the question away with a laugh. But her pre-dive rituals revealed a richer truth. Hayashi layers her gear with deliberate care, rubs mugwort on her goggles with practiced precision to prevent fogging, and cinches a handwoven belt weighted with five kilos of lead around her hips. When surfacing, she exhales with the ama’s signature isobue whistle, said to help expel carbon dioxide and regulate breathing. It’s a sound mastered only after years of practice.
Clearly, her every action is guided by a heightened awareness—a recurring theme of this trip. Just as the Ise-Shima shrine is rebuilt with intention, its old timbers carried across Japan to be reused rather than discarded, the ama treat the sea with an almost custodial clarity that transcends respect.
This ethos is most evident in the modesty of their harvests, dictated by what the sea can reasonably spare. At the end of our dive, after Hayashi showed us the few shells she had gathered, we tipped them back into the water as they were still too small for consumption. It was a small gesture, yet it resonated in an age when many of us take abundance for granted and seldom think about where our food comes from.
As I ate my way through Ise-Shima, knowing the provenance of each dish—and how the ingredients were dictated by the ama’s daily catch—imbued every bite with added meaning. At <a href="https://www.instagram.com/oyado_the_earth.official/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oyado The Earth</a>, a Michelin-rated ryokan set on a cliff overlooking the Pacific, we were served grilled abalone so tender and sweet it stopped conversation. Understanding the invisible labor, discipline, restraint, and generational knowledge behind it elevated this delicacy into something far more profound.
By the time I reached Amanemu for the final stretch of my journey, it dawned on me that I had, in my own way, been orbiting Ise-Shima like a pilgrim approaching a shrine—slowly, deliberately, drawing closer with each encounter. I had dreamed of visiting this retreat for years, and finally arriving felt like the fulfillment of a long-held promise.
I had planned to hike the surrounding national park, but a sudden downpour kept me indoors. Instead, I settled into my suite’s onsen bath, filled with healing water drawn from nearby hot springs. Later, there was plenty of time to appreciate how the resort’s pared-back architecture framed the greenery like works of art as I read verses by the 17th-century haiku master Matsuo Basho and pondered how his spare lines hold entire worlds of meaning:
Oh, tranquility! 
Penetrating the very rock— 
A cicada’s voice
Then an embarrassingly simple revelation struck. The point is not always to keep moving; sometimes, the truest journey can be found in the act of being still.
<figure id="attachment_154360" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-154360" style="width: 1800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-154360" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay.jpg" alt="A view of Ago Bay from Amanemu." width="1800" height="1200" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay.jpg 1800w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay-768x512.jpg 768w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Ise-Shima-Japan-Amanemu-View-Toward-Ago-Bay-1568x1045.jpg 1568w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-154360" class="wp-caption-text">A view of Ago Bay from Amanemu. (Courtesy of Amanemu)</figcaption></figure>
WHERE TO STAY
Set on a forested bluff above Ago Bay, <a href="https://www.aman.com/resorts/amanemu?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanemu</a> (from US$1,140 a night) comes with just 32 cedar-clad suites and villas, plus a wellness program rooted in the area’s hot-spring culture.
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This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March/May 2026</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Spirited Away”). Buy a single issue or subscribe <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Shinto Traditions and Slow Travel in Ise-Shima