In Seicho Matsumoto’s novel “Manners and Customs at time,” the culprit uses the ritual at Mekari Shrine to set up an alibi.

Mekari Shrine is located in Moji-ku, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, at the northernmost tip of Kyushu (in Mekari Park). It is the setting for Seicho Matsumoto’s novel “Manners and Customs at time,” and is famous for the Mekari Shinto ritual held early in the morning on New Year’s Day of the lunar calendar. There is a literary monument of Seicho Matsumoto in the precincts of the shrine.

According to shrine legend, the shrine was founded in the 9th year of the Emperor Chuai era (200 AD) by Empress Jingu (Empress of the 14th Emperor Chuai) in gratitude for her victory in the conquest of the Three Korean Kingdoms. The deity is Seoritsuhime, the Aratama of Amaterasu Omikami, who governs the ebb and flow of the tides. Seoritsuhime has been watching over the Kanmon Straits, where the tides are strong, for more than 1,800 years.

The Aratama is a divine spirit whose rough aspect has been emphasized to become a single divinity.

The Mekari Shinto ritual originates from an ancient legend that Empress Jingu celebrated her triumphant return from the conquest of Three Korean Kingdoms by personally becoming a Shinto priest and offering wakame seaweed from the Kanmon Straits to the gods. “Mekari” means “to reap wakame seaweed. On New Year’s Day of the lunar calendar, at the time of the Ox and Tiger (from 2:00 to 4:00 a.m.), three priests enter the sea at low tide and reap wakame seaweed by the light of torches. They offer the wakame seaweed to the gods and pray for safe voyages and a bountiful catch. The ritual was considered a secret ceremony and was closed to the public until before World War II (1945).

The Mekari Shinto ritual is also held at the same time on the same day at Sumiyoshi Shrine, the Ichinomiya main shrine in Shimonoseki, on the opposite shore. The Mekari Shinto ritual at Sumiyoshi Shrine is not open to the public.

Access to Mekari Shrine

It takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes from Haneda Airport (Tokyo) to Kitakyushu Airport. It takes about 35 minutes by Nishitetsu Bus from Kitakyushu Airport to JR Kokura Station.

It takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes by Sanyo Shinkansen from JR Shin-Osaka Station to JR Kokura Station.

Take the Kagoshima Main Line (bound for Mojiko Station) from JR Kokura Station to JR Mojiko Station for about 15 minutes and get off at JR Mojiko Station.

It is 2 minute-walk from JR Mojiko Station to Kyushu Railway Kinenkan Station on the Kitakyushu Bank Retro Line. It takes 10 minutes from Kyushu Railway Kinenkan Station to Kanmon Kaikyo Mekari Station. It is 8 minute- walk from Kanmon Kaikyo Megari Station, or from JR Mojiko Station take Nishitetsu Bus (bound for Mekari) to Mekari Jinja-mae bus stop and it is a short walk.