Mihashira Shrine

Built in 1826 by Tachibana Akikata, the 9th lord of the Yanagawa Domain, Mihashira Shrine, is the most revered shrine in Yanagawa. It is dedicated to the three deities (in Japanese, mihashira) of Tachibana Muneshige, the first lord of the domain, his wife Ginchiyo, and her father Bekki Dosetsu. 　Visitors cross the balustered bridge from Setaka Oukan Road on the left bank of the Futatsugawa River and pass under the giant torii gate as they approach the shrine from the south. A row of pine trees divides the approach to the shrine in two, and there are rows of cherry trees on either side. In the Edo era, the shrine approach was used as a venue for yabusame (horseback archery), and this tradition has been revived in recent years with competitions held every spring. There is a pond on the northern end of the shrine grounds, to the west of which sits Seikoen, the shrine office building named after a tea house established by the ruling Tachibana Clan. To the north, there is a garden called Mikasayama. The approach makes a westward turn at the hand-washing basin before heading to the Hall of Worship and the Main Hall. The cherry blossoms burst into bloom in the spring, and in the fall, a lively festival called Onigie is held, which features a procession of the Dorotsukudon float (which was designated by Fukuoka Prefecture as an important intangible cultural asset on April 24, 1976). Inside the shrine grounds, there are more than 100 stone monuments, including a monument to Ando Seian, who is considered the father of scholarly pursuits in the Yanagawa Domain, a stone lantern dedicated to Unryu Kyukichi, a sumo wrestler from the late Edo era who was crowned the 10th yokozuna, and a stone monument bearing a poem written by the renowned poet Hakushu Kitahara. There are also giboshi, or bridge ornaments, from the bridge that used to cross the moat into old Yanagawa Castle. 　In his poetry collections Omoide (Memories) and Mizu no Kozo (The Composition of Water), Kitahara writes about Mihashira Shrine and calls Yanagawa “the city of water.” The canals of Yanagawa and the residence of Kitahara were designated by the government as national scenic spots on March 10, 2015.