Christmas Morning at a Tenmangu Shrine

Xmas

Christmas Day, 2013, was the 53rd day of my walk around Kyushu on the Kyushu Pilgrimage.

I took an early morning train up the Chikugo River valley towards Hita to pick up the pilgrimage from where I had stopped the day before.

My first stop was a small Tenmangu Shrine. I'm not sure exactly which Tenmangu shrine it was as there are dozens of them in the area.

Dazaifu Tenmangu is a little to the north and it is the temple where Sugawara Michizane, deified as Tenjin, was buried, and so the cult spread throughout the region.

This particular shrine had been recently rebuilt and was sporting a fresh coat of vermillion paint.

There were also quite a few pairs of komainu lining the approach.

Best of all was that because of the strong, low, midwinter sun, the "golden hour" was still there several hours after dawn.

Koinobori