We visited the Shrine of the Burning Bower at Yashima. Said my travelling companion Sora:

"The diety enshrined here is Konohana Sakuya Hime, the goddess of Flowering Trees, who is also enshrined on Mount Fuji. This holy place is called the Shrine of the Burning Bower because when the deity's god-husband refused to believe that the child she conceived on their single night together was his, the goddess walled herself up in a lying-in bower of wattle and daub and set fire to herself declaring that if her infant were born unharmed, it would prove her innocence. The son she bore was the god Hohodemi, or 'the Flame- born.' When writing poetry here it is therefore customary to make some reference to smoke."

Apparently there are various other traditions observed here too, such as not eating a fish called konoshiro which, when grilled, smells like human flesh burning.