Isasumi Shrine — Local services in Aizumisato

The Isasumi Shrine dates back many, many years to antiquity. It is visited by individuals from throughout Japan and abroad.

Locals of all ages from throughout the community pay their respect and offer prayers. It is one center of community life starting the with "Tawara Hiki" (an opposing red team on one side pitted against the white team pulling a massive bale of rice in opposite directions. The half naked contestants, locked in spirited competition in the early January dead of winter, compete for superiority and long-term health. On our early August 2023 visit, shrine personnel prepared their premises for the Tanabata Festival followed by Obon observances.

A lantern along its west entrance bears a cross. It is a testament to the "Kakure Christians" literally "Christian's in hiding" who suffered persecution during the early Tokugawa Period, the vicious, unrelenting assault upon Christianity in Japan.

The Tanabata Festival was approaching. Note the streamers at the shrine entrance. The local Isasumi Shrine welcomed the opportunity for local and neighboring visitors to offer their prayers along with their financial...

As the Ichinomiya of Iwashiro Province and the main guardian deity of Aizu, the shrine boasts a history of over 2,000 years and conveys the origin of the name Aizu. It is said to bestow blessings such as good fortune, protection from evil and evil spirits, business development, bountiful harvests, and matchmaking. In addition to possessing valuable treasures such as national and prefectural important cultural properties, the shrine also carries out many ancient ceremonies, such as the rice-planting festival, one of Japan's three rice-planting festivals and a nationally designated important intangible folk cultural property. Within the sacred grounds, which cover approximately 67,000 square meters and retains Aizu's virgin forest, you'll find the shrine's sacred tree, the Usuzumi Sakura, one of the Aizu Five Cherry Blossoms, the Hiryu Wisteria, a prefectural natural monument, and the outer garden, Ayame Garden, where colorful irises bloom in full...

伊佐須美神社（いさすみじんじゃ）。福島県大沼郡会津美里町宮林。

式内社（名神大）、陸奥国二宮。旧国幣中社。

主祭神： ・伊弉諾尊（いざなぎのみこと） ・伊弉冉尊（いざなみのみこと） ・大毘古命（おおひこのみこと、大彦命） - 第8代孝元天皇の皇子。四道将軍の1人で、北陸道を進んだとされる。 ・建沼河別命（たけぬなかわわけのみこと、武渟川別） -...