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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Kumano Kotai Shrine (Nagano Side)

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is the normal goshuin available on the Nagano Prefecture side of the…

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Kumano Kotai Shrine (Famous Regional Features) (Nagano Side)

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is one of the special ones available on the Nagano Prefecture side…

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Nihon San Dai Kumano (Kumano Kotai Shrine) (Gunma Side)

Kumano Kotai Jinja

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is one of the special ones available on the Gunma Prefecture side…

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