The Moon Beside the Sun: Tsukuyomi's Shrine Within Ise

Tsukuyomi's cult presence is smaller than that of his siblings Amaterasu and Susanoo, but it is real and it sits at the heart of Japan's most sacred Shinto site. Within the vast Ise Grand Shrine complex, the moon kami is enshrined at Tsukiyomi-no-miya, one of the auxiliary shrines, or betsugu, attached to the Outer Shrine, standing near the sanctuary of Amaterasu herself even though the myth of Uke Mochi tells of the two siblings' permanent estrangement. Additional shrines dedicated to Tsukuyomi exist elsewhere in Japan, including Tsukiyomi Shrine in the Matsunoo district of Kyoto and a shrine of the same name on Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, a site with a strong local tradition connecting it to the historical origins of moon worship in Japan. Tsukuyomi's continued presence at Ise, quietly positioned beside the shrine complex built for his sister, reflects something the surviving texts leave unstated: the religious tradition never fully let go of the moon kami's standing even as the myths themselves gave him one of the coldest exits of any figure in the pantheon. That the tradition kept a place for him so close to his sister's own sanctuary, rather than omitting him after the myth's estrangement, suggests his standing among the three noble children was never seriously in doubt, whatever the Uke Mochi story says about the two siblings personally.