Japan Guide
Shikoku
Kotohira-gū
Kotohira-gū, Kotohira's star attraction, is usually known as Kompira-san. It's a venerable shrine, dating back to at least the tenth century, but award-winning contemporary steel and glass buildings designed by Suzuki Ryoji lend a modern edge to the mainly wooden hillside complex, reached via 785 steps. Some tourists choose to part with ¥5300 to be carried up in cramped palanquins, but the climb is not so strenuous and shouldn't take you more than thirty minutes.
The shrine grounds begin at the Ō-mon, a stone gateway just through which you'll pass the Gonin Byakushō – five red-painted stalls shaded by large white umbrellas. Further along to the right of the main walkway, lined with stone lanterns, are three small museums housing different collections of the shrine's artistic treasures: the Hōmotsu-kan, the Gakugei Sankō-kan and the Takahashi Yuichi-kan (all daily 8.30am–4.30pm; charge ¥500). Only the latter, displaying the striking paintings of the nineteenth century artist Takahashi Yaichi, is worth paying to enter.
To the right of the steps is the entrance to the serene reception hall OmoteShoin (daily 8.30am–4.30pm; ¥500) built in 1659. Delicate screen paintings and decorated coor panels by the celebrated artist Okyo Maruyama are classified as Important Cultural Assets; they're so precious you have to peer through glass into the dim interiors to see them.
The next major building reached is the grand Asahi-no-Yashiro (Sunshine Shrine) dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, decorated with intricate woodcarvings of flora and fauna and topped with a green copper roof. Two flights of steep steps lead from here to the thatched-roof Hon-gū, the main shrine, built in 1879 and the centre of Kompira-san's daily activities. Priests and their acolytes in traditional robes rustle by along a raised wooden corridor linking the shrine buildings. Many visitors stop here, but the hardy, and truly faithful, trudge on up a further 583 steps to the Oku-sha following a path to the left of the main shrine. When you reach this inner shrine, located almost at the top of Zozu-san, look up at the rocks on the left to see two rather cartoonish stone carvings of the demon Tengu. 
www.konpira.or.jp