Hochigai Shrine

Hochigai Shrine 方違神社 Sakai (堺市) March 29, 2025 About Hochigai Shrine The name so this shrine is extremely unusual. 方違 usually involves avoiding traveling in unlucky directions or at unlucky times. Built on a location known as “Mikuniyama” or sometimes “Mikunioka”, it’s right on the border of three provinces of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi but does not belong to any of them, thus has no direction. Pilgrims of the Kumado Kodo visited this shrine to ward off unlucky directions before heading south. Nowadays it’s often visited by people who are about to go in a new direction in life, such…

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