Visiting Umi Hachiman-gu, Fukuoka

On June 30, I made a short trip to Umi Hachiman-gu (宇美八幡宮), a Shinto shrine in Umi, Fukuoka. The shrine is venerated as legendary place where Empress Jingu safely gave birth to the future Emperor Ojin, and is still patroned by those praying for safe childbirth and smooth child rearing.  

Before going to the main shrine, I washed my hands at Chozuya (手水舎).

Let's take a walk to the shrine.

Honden or the main shrine.

Yufuta's forest (湯蓋の森 -no mori), one of the old camphor trees in this shrine, is designated as the National Treasures.

Koyasu-no-ishi (子安の石), literary means the praying stone for childbirth and smooth child rearing. A pregnant woman who have a safe child delivery will take this stone and take it home. After giving birth, write a child's name in another new stone and wish for healthy growth and development of a child. When visiting a shrine, she'd like to pay with the stone she kept.

After that I went to the Enagaura (胞衣ヶ浦) Upper Shrine. In most cases of the upper shrines in Japan, we have to go up a lot of stairs or we have to mountains to climb. But here it's easy to go there. You just go straight ahead from the shrine torii of back gate. When you climb the stairs to the shrine, you'll see the place of worship called Chinju-no-mori (鎮守の森) or the guardian forest.

The emperor's placenta is dedicated to the shrine. 

There is a park near the shrine that is known for cherry trees. It'll be very crowded during the hanami season.