Inside the Tado Festival at Mie’s Tado Taisha — the 700-year-old Ageuma Shinji horse-jumping rite, the shrine’s horse-deity mythology, the ongoing animal-welfare debate, and the shrine’s year-round programme.
Temples & Shrines
Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines across Japan.
Orihime Jinja on Mt Orihime in Ashikaga — the 1705 shrine dedicated to the weaver goddesses of the town’s 1,200-year silk industry, now eastern Japan’s busiest matchmaking shrine. Plus the Enmusubizaka stairs and Tanabata festival.
Keisokuji is a small Shingon Buddhist temple in Ashikaga, Tochigi — number 17 on the 33-Kannon sacred-sites pilgrimage. Plus the broader Ashikaga temple circuit including Banna-ji and Kotokuji.