Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Gokoku-jinja

Gokoku-jinja is a sprawling shrine very near to Sesshu Garden and we visited both on the same day. According to this Encyclopedia of Shinto website, Gokoku-jinja is a generic name for all shrines "dedicated to the spirits of individuals who died in Japanese wars from the end of the early modern period through World War II."



Unfortunately, I really don't have much to say about it since I couldn't find much info in English about this specific shrine. The reason that this was particularly interesting to us was that the priest that we met there (who happened to be locking the place up for the day) actually took the time to perform several minutes of Taiko drumming from inside the shrine while we listened outside. His playing created a very relaxing and meditative atmosphere. Afterward he chatted with us for a while and attempted to answer several of Mia's questions.

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