Visiting The Last Samurai Jinja in Sakata

Nanshu Jinja and our GSTC Training Program

Nov 20, 2023

Kia ora Koutou, Tim Bunting, Kiwi Yamabushi here on the Japan you never knew you wanted to know.

This week I took part in a Sustainable Tourism Training Program run by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

The course covers everything under the sun, and more, about what a sustainable industry and destination looks like, and it’s great to have clear examples of where we can improve.

We were mainly running this course for the people of Toge, the village Haguro-san is in. However, some participants also came from Yamagata City, Higashi Matsushima in Miyagi, and Tokyo. It was a great opportunity to look at how we can develop Toge as a sustainable destination for future generations, and I am excited at the prospect!

Plus, the course was run by Kazuhiro Arai, a dude who studied at good ol’ Kapiti College in New Zealand! (In NZ, a college is a high school, and my intermediate school was part of a college too, to make things more confusing).

Visiting Nanshu Jinja

The course took up more than my whole weekend so I’m afraid I don’t have a whole article for you. Instead, earlier in the week I had a bit of time so I finally went and visited Nanshu Jinja, a local jinja dedicated to Saigo Takamori, the real last samurai.

The jinja is a typical jinja with a place to pay your respects, and a really well-kept garden as well. There were statues of Saigo Takamori and Suge Sanehide, as well as a museum with tapestries and works by Saigo, and a bunch of stuff he actually used while in exile, and during his time in Yamagata.

Read more about what The Last Samurai has to do with where I live here:

Mountains of Wisdom

What does The Last Samurai have to with Japan's Silk Industry?

Kia ora Koutou, Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi here bringing you concepts, life advice, and hiking guides straight from the mountains of Japan…

2 years ago · 4 likes · Tim Bunting - Kiwi Yamabushi

Saigo Takamori and Suge Sanehide

Suge Sanehide (L) and Saigo Takamori (R) statues at Nanshu Jinja in Sakata City. These two dudes had a huge, *huge* impact on the Shonai Region. There’s even a whole website dedicated to it translated by yours truly.

The writing in pink at the bottom says (I believe) this Nanshu Jinja sign was donated by the bank of Kagoshima in Kyushu in 2018. This coincided with an NHK TV show Sego-don on Saigo Takemori.

Right next to Nanshu Jinja there were all these carvings made out of dead trees. It was bizarre, but cool nonetheless. One of those random things you come across in Japan.

And what one assumes can only be a church right next to Nanshu Jinja. This was also the location of the carvings.

Daily Yamabushi for This Week

I knew Steve Jobs visited Kyoto. I didn’t realise his inspiration for the iPhone came from this phone in a restaurant in Toge, though.

Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of November 4 to November 10, 2023.
Read Daily Yamabushi for free at timbunting.com/blog or Medium.com.

This week, the most popular post, although short, was The Real Goal. It was surely a timely reminder for me, and I hope it will be for you too.

Mountains of Wisdom: Tell Your Friends!

Mt. Haguro on a cool autumn’s day. The colours were much more vibrant than this, I assure you!

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Ka kite ano.

Tim.

Kiwi Yamabushi