Kashima Jingu

Published: Aug 11, 2026

Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Kashima JinguTakemikazuchiKaname-ishicedar avenueToogoku Sanja

Representative image — not a photograph of this location.

Kashima Jingu enshrines Takemikazuchi, the thunder and sword deity who in the myths subdues the land and, in later belief, pins down the catfish whose thrashing causes earthquakes. It is one of the oldest shrines in eastern Japan, it gave the language the phrase kashima-dachi for setting out on a journey, and it holds a seventh-century straight sword that is a National Treasure.

What carries the visit is the ground itself. Behind the main hall a wide gravel path runs for several hundred metres under enormous cedars to an inner shrine, and off it lie the Kaname-ishi — a small exposed stone said to be the tip of a pillar driven into the earth to hold the catfish down — and the Mitarashi Pond, where roughly four hundred thousand litres of spring water rise each day into a pool clear enough to see the bottom of. It takes two hours to do properly and most visitors give it forty minutes.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Grounds open during daylight hours | Treasure hall keeps its own hours

Closed: Open year-round

Entrance Fee

Free | Treasure hall and certain areas charged separately | Parking ¥300–500 per day at the main lots

Best Season

Year-round | Early morning for mist under the cedar avenue

Visit Duration

1.5–2.5 hours for the full circuit

Getting There

Access Information

Kyuchu, Kashima. About 10 minutes on foot from JR Kashima-Jingu Station, or 15 minutes by car from Itako IC. Grounds free to enter; the treasure hall and certain areas are charged separately. The main car parks hold around 300 cars at ¥300–500 per day; a small free lot at the Mitarashi entrance is reached by a narrow road.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Walk the whole of the oku-sando.** The long cedar avenue behind the main hall is the reason to come and it is where most day-trippers turn back. It runs several hundred metres to the inner shrine and is at its best early, when mist sits under the trees. **Find the Kaname-ishi.** The visible part is a small unremarkable stone; the claim is that it is the cap of a pillar going far into the earth. Tokugawa Mitsukuni is said to have had it dug around for a week without finding the bottom. It is signposted off the main avenue. **Mitarashi Pond is at the far end and downhill.** Four hundred thousand litres a day of spring water, and clear. The path down to it is the last thing on the circuit, so budget the return climb. **Do the three-shrine circuit if you have a car.** Kashima, Katori across the river in Chiba, and Ikisu in Kamisu form the Toogoku Sanja and are traditionally visited together in a single day. **Free parking exists but is awkward.** The Mitarashi-guchi lot costs nothing and is small, with a narrow approach. The main lots are ¥300–500 and considerably less stressful.

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