Takachiho Gorge

Numerous tombs were built at various locations around Miyazaki Prefecture during the Age of Ancient Burial Mounds (late 4th to 5th century). It is also center stage to a myth found in Japan's earliest histories, in which the sun goddess is said to have sent her grandson down from the heavens to a mountain peak (in present day Miyazaki) to become ruler of Japan. There is another legend according to which royalty from an ancient Korean state are overrun by Tang and Silla forces and escape to Japan. They are said to have eventually arrived at a mountain hamlet in Miyazaki, where they made their home. Many such oral traditions and traditional ceremonies can still be found in various locales around Miyazaki.

Mansho Ito

In the late 16th century, Jesuit missionaries in Japan sent a Japanese Christian envoy to Southern Europe as representatives of Kyushu's Christian feudal lords. Mansho Itoh, a boy from Hyuga (current day Miyazaki), was among the four boys that comprised the delegation. After being given an audience before the King of Portugal, they were greeted with great hospitality when granted an audience before Pope Gregory XIII. They were the first Japanese to be received before Europeans as well as western Christian society.