Izumi Shrine

In detail

This shrine in the northwest corner of Suizenji Jojuen Garden was built in 1878, just one year after large tracts of the city of Kumamoto had been burned down in the Satsuma Rebellion. In a bid to revitalize the fire-ravaged city, retainers of the old Kumamoto domain established a shrine devoted to the Hosokawa family that had presided over more than 240 years of peace and prosperity in the region.

The main deities enshrined here are the spirits of Hosokawa Fujitaka (1534–1610), founder of the clan; his son Hosokawa Tadaoki (1563–1646); his grandson Hosokawa Tadatoshi (1586–1641), the first-generation Hosokawa lord of Kumamoto; and Hosokawa Shigekata (1721–1785). The minor deities honor the spirits of a further 11 generations of Hosokawa up to Hosokawa Morihisa (1839–1893), plus Hosokawa Gracia, the Christian wife of Tadaoki. This garden was chosen as the site for the shrine because of its association with the Hosokawa family.

Don’t miss the chozuya, which is a stone basin for handwashing fed by the “water of longevity” from an underground spring originating from Mt. Aso, and a baroquely shaped pine tree that started out as a bonsai tree belonging to Hosokawa Tadatoshi in the first half of the seventeenth century. During the 2016 earthquake, one of the shrine’s three stone torii gates collapsed and two developed cracks. The torii by the pond was reconstructed in wood.