Keta Taisha Shrine

Keta Taisha is the most prominent shrine on the Noto Peninsula, dedicated to Onamuchi, a deity of love, and believed to have existed in some form for over 2,000 years. It appears in the 8th-century Man'yoshu poetry anthology. The shrine's core, the Irazu no Mori, is a sacred woodland off-limits to everyone except the head priest. Two annual festivals are particularly striking: in March, a large procession carries the deity across 30 kilometers of the peninsula, and in December, a cormorant caught in Nanao is brought to the shrine after a three-day journey, then released before sunrise. The direction it takes is read as an omen for the coming year.