A family was picnicking on a bench set up in the park at Taishido Hachiman Jinja Shrine

A family picnicking in the park at Taishido Hachiman Jinja Shrine

Looking around the small park in front of Taishido Hachiman Jinja Shrine, which was quiet, I saw a family sitting on a bench placed among the trees. A young child and its father and mother seemed to be having a picnic as they sat on the benches. No cherry blossoms were blooming, there was no grass, and the place would have been covered with dust if the wind blew, but the family seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Aside from the family, this is Taishido Hachiman Jinja Shrine, which is a bit confusingly named. Since it calls itself "Hachiman Shrine," we know that the main deity is Hachiman-sama. But when I looked for the Taishido Hall, which enshrines Prince Shotoku, I could not find it. This is because there is no Taishido Hall here. The "Taishido" of Taishido Hachiman Jinja Shrine only indicates the name of the place where the shrine is located and does not mean that there is a Taishido Hall within the shrine's precincts.

People who know that "Taishido" is the name of a place may not think anything of it. However, those who do not know that "Taishido" is a place name may think that a hall dedicated to Prince Shotoku, the patron of Buddhism, stands in the precincts of a Shinto shrine. Or am I the only one who thinks such a trivial thing?

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