Meoto-sugi (夫婦杉), the Wedded Cedars of Takachiho Shrine
Couples walk round these two cedars three times, hand in hand. The Meoto-sugi are two big trees west of Takachiho Shrine's hall of worship that grew from one root, so the shrine treats them as a married pair, and the custom says three circuits together bring harmony in the marriage, a safe household and descendants. The town's own page puts it more simply: two trunks that become one. Look at the base and you can see what it means. The two trunks fuse at the foot, bound together by a shimenawa, the twisted straw rope that marks something sacred, with a small roofed offering box beside them and a fence hung with ema, the wooden prayer plaques visitors write their wishes on. How old the pair is, nobody has settled. Travel pages give about 800 years, which would make them as old as the Chichibu-sugi, the shrine's 55-metre cedar some 35 metres away; another tourist page says 400. No survey, sign or designation we found carries a measurement, so the honest answer is several hundred years and a range of four centuries. That gap is the easiest one on this page to close. A tape round each trunk at chest height would tell us a great deal, and if you have done it, tell us what you found.
高千穂神社 拝殿前, 宮崎県西臼杵郡高千穂町三田井1037 (in front of the haiden, Takachiho Shrine) You can recognise it by the two trunks fused at the base and bound with a shimenawa, a roofed offering box and an ema fence at their foot. It stands west of the hall of worship, beside the main sanctuary.
Free, inside the Takachiho Shrine precinct, by the haiden and honden; fenced, with ema racks at the fence. Shrine hours daily; no booking.
Takachiho is reached by bus only (no railway): Takachiho Bus Centre to the shrine is about 15 minutes' walk, or a few minutes by taxi.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
