Kushida Shrine

Kushida Shrine is the tutelary shrine of Hakata, the merchant half of Fukuoka, and locals affectionately call it O-kushida-san. Founded, according to tradition, in 757, it enshrines the sun goddess Amaterasu and the storm god Susanoo, and for more than twelve centuries it has watched over the district's tradespeople, sailors and craftsmen. What makes it unmissable, however, is its role as the spiritual home of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa, a 780-year-old festival so central to the city's identity that it was inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Every July teams of men in traditional loincloths and happi coats race one-tonne wooden floats, the kakiyama, through the narrow streets of Hakata in a thunderous sprint that finishes here at Kushida Shrine. The climax, the Oiyama early on the morning of the fifteenth, sees the floats charge out of the shrine gate against the clock from around 4:59 a.m., watched by tens of thousands of spectators. The custom is said to have begun in 1241 when a revered monk was carried through the streets sprinkling holy water to ward off an epidemic. To feel the festival's presence at any time of year, step into the grounds and look for the kazariyamakasa, a spectacularly decorated stationary float several storeys tall, kept permanently on display and re-dressed each season with new figures from mythology and history.

Beyond the festival, the shrine rewards a slower look. A pair of stone lanterns, an ancient ginkgo tree believed to be over a thousand years old, and a small pair of stone bulls whose horns visitors touch for luck all cluster around the vermilion main hall. There is a curious circular stone by the gate, the chikara-ishi, once used by strongmen to test their power, and votive plaques and lucky-arrow charms fill the racks near the offering hall. A small museum inside the grounds displays festival regalia and old maps of Hakata for a modest fee.

Because it sits in the heart of the old town, Kushida makes an ideal first stop on a walking tour of historic Hakata. From here it is only a few minutes on foot to the Zen temples of Tochoji and Shofukuji, the Hakata Machiya Folk Museum directly opposite the shrine, and the canalside shopping of Canal City. The shrine is compact, so thirty to forty minutes is enough for a visit unless you time it for the festival, but its atmosphere, dense with incense, history and civic pride, distils the character of Fukuoka better than almost anywhere else in the city. Come at dawn if you can, when the grounds are quiet and the low light suits the weathered timber and stone.