Castle Town

Yes, Sakura City is a " Castle Town". In the days of warlords and samurai there was a Sakura Castle.

The central government in "Edo", now Tokyo, sent their officials out to the various areas. In order to insure these official`s loyalty to the Edo government, their familes remained in Edo, hostages? To show how important the officials were , there were very large entourages. Always included in the entourages were "intellectuals". "Intellectuals" in this period were priests. Officials took good care of their priests. Where ever they were stationed the officials built the priests temples or shrines as dwellings.

Another way that Edo insured their official`s loyalty was to move them around. This insured that the officials never became to close or chummy with the locals. When the officials were transferred their entourages went with them. The shrines and temples were left without priests.

If they were kept up, it was by the hands of the locals. Some, of course, fell to ruin.

Here in our small district of less than 70 households, there are two shrines and one temple.The residents have taken care of these over the years. There is a separate roster for each, and when your name comes up on the roster, your group, usually 3 or4 households, is expected to take care of that shrine or temple for that month. This means raking and sweeping the area and making it presentable for anyone who may come to pay their respects to the shrine.

Pictured today is the smallest of the three. Our group of 4 households was responsible for this shrine last month. We went in on the first and the fifteenth to clean up. I think that you can see by the picture that the shrine is well taken care of and loved.

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