Watazumi Shrine, a real-life Shinto shrine located on Japan’s Tsushima Island, has announced that it will prohibit entry to anyone other than congregants and worshippers starting March 23. According to official announcements posted on Instagram and Threads, the decision to ban all tourists was prompted by “a grave and unforgivable act of disrespect committed by foreigner(s).”
The Watazumi Shrine is one of the locations on Tsushima Island that gained significant worldwide attention after the release of Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima in 2020. The shrine is theorized to have inspired the Scarlet Rock Shrine that appears in-game, and Ghost of Tsushima fans famously made large donations to help repair it after it was damaged in a typhoon later in 2020 (source: Famitsu). The crowdfunding campaign launched by the shrine raised 27 million yen (around $180 thousand USD – five times the original target), earning gratitude from the shrine’s priests.
Unfortunately, the Watazumi Shrine has since gone through several instances of problematic behavior from visitors, which has on one occasion resulted in a controversial ban on visitors from South Korea (source: Tokyo Weekender). And now, a serious incident that occurred on March 22 has prompted the shrine to forbid all tourists from entering the premises.
Although the shrine’s officials do not offer details about the “grave and unforgivable act of disrespect” that triggered the strict measures, they mention consulting with police on numerous occasions regarding problematic behavior from visitors, including vandalism of the sacred grounds and repeated physical and verbal abuse against staff. Such acts have caused the shrine’s officials “unbearable mental anguish” and have left staff feeling that “management of the shrine is in jeopardy.”
As a result, Watazumi Shrine has banned visits for touristic purposes, allowing only congregants and worshippers to enter the shrine premises. In addition, the shrine has also banned visitors from taking photos, videos and recording livesteams. In a follow-up post, the shrine’s officials clarified that worshippers who want to take photos will not be refused, emphasizing that “those who consider this place a theme park or simply a photogenic location are not worshippers.”
Although the notice mentions that tourists from both domestic and international tour buses will be refused entry, the shrine’s officials seem particularly angry with the behavior of foreign tourists, commenting “Inbound tourism’s destruction of places, things, and people cherished by the Japanese is nothing less than the destruction of Japanese culture.”
