A lonely torii stands behind blooming dandelions at Hakodate Gokoku Shrine

Hakodate Gokoku Jinja Shrine, like Hakodate Hachimangu Shrine, is built halfway up Mount Hakodate. Although there is a slope and stairs to get to the shrine grounds, once there, the view from the grounds is excellent. Once there, however, the view from the shrine grounds is excellent.

As the name "Gokoku Shrine" suggests, this shrine used to be called Shokonsha, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of those who died in the service of the nation after the Meiji Restoration. In other words, like the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, it was built by the state, and there are no shrine parishioners. This may be the reason. Compared to Hakodate Hachimangu Shrine, there seemed to be fewer people visiting the shrine. The precincts of the shrine were overgrown with grass and dandelions in full bloom, and the torii gate stood forlornly at the end of the road.

As it is a gokoku-jinja shrine, there are many stone monuments on the shrine grounds to mourn the war dead. There are memorials for the Boshin War, the Sino-Japanese War, and World War II. Among them, the one that caught my attention was the graves of the new government troops, called "Kyu-kanshu-humbo. The graves of government soldiers who died in the Hakodate War lie in a secluded area next to the shrine pavilion. It is unusual to find graves in the precincts of a shrine that hates dirt. Even in a shrine with few worshippers, no one is visiting the graves of government soldiers. Surrounded by empty trees, the graveyard looked like a no-man's land.

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