wish you were here (Art Sites)

　The tunnel of cherry blossom trees at Kikaku Koen forms a 20 x 300 meter bridge out to the turtle-like island in the middle of the lake. At the head of the bridge is a shrine called Usa Jinja. This is one of the 40,000 branch shrines that enshrine Japan’s legendary 15th Emperor, Ojin (or Homutawake) deified as Hachiman Daimyojin, the god of military power. The main shrine, Usa Jingu is in Usa City across the inland sea from Ehime prefecture in Kyushu’s Oita Prefecture but Hachiman shrines are everywhere making it the most common shrine in Japan. One of the most memorable ones I’ve been to was the Tsurugaoka Hachiman in Kamakura which is home to an elaborate Yabusame (horse-back archery) ceremony every year in mid September. There’s also a big Hachiman shrine in downtown Takamatsu called Iwaseo Hachiman at the foot of Mt. Iwaseo.
Like many shrines the Hachiman at Kikaku Koen has a hanashizume festival every spring that consists of some 200 people dressed in period clothing in a progression from the shrine out to the island. According to one Japanese source I found the Hanashizume no matusri or festivals of appeasing flowers were traditionally held as a means to ward off epidemics which were believed to be started by bad spirits released by the flowers when they fall. Please correct me if this is way off.
In this photo I took when I went recently to view the blossoms, the Orion constellation just happened to be right over the shrine.