Meoto-Iwa
Meoto - Iwa: called (Japanese夫妇 岩, literally " Husband - Wife Rocks "), even the Wedded Rocks, are a pair of small rocks in the Pacific, near the south-eastern coast of Ise (formerly Futami ) in Mie Prefecture, Japan.
The two rocks are connected by a rope Shimenawa and apply to the neighboring Okitama Shrine, where the food goddess Miketsu is worshiped as sanctuaries. In the Shinto mythology they represent the connection of the kami Izanagi and Izanami, in a broader sense they thus also stand for the marriage of a man and woman. The majority have a ton rope must be replaced each year in a special ceremony several times. The larger rocks that should be male, has a small torii at its peak. At low tide, the two rocks are not separated by water.
The rocks and the Okitama shrine located near the Grand Shrine of Ise, the highest sanctuary of a Shinto shrine.
List of other Meoto - Iwa
Although the Wedded Rocks in the Prefecture Ise by far the best known, there are a number of other rocks ( pairs) in Japan with the same or similar name in the following places:
- Samani, sub-prefecture of Hidaka, Hokkaido Prefecture: Oyako - iwa (亲子 岩)
- Kazamaura, Aomori Prefecture: Futami - iwa (二 见 岩)
- Nakadomari, Aomori Prefecture
- Ninohe, Iwate Prefecture
- Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture: Meoto - iwa ( the former Senmaya ) and Futami - iwa (二 见 石)
- Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture: Hatago - iwa [note 1] (机具 岩), Noto - Futami (能 登 二 见)
- Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture: Meoto - iwa (女 夫 岩)
- Kōnan, Kōchi Prefecture
- Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture
- Kurogi Fukuoka Prefecture
- Shima, Fukuoka Prefecture
- Takeo, Saga Prefecture: O- iwa -Me- iwa [note 2] (雄 岩 雌 岩)