Usa Jingu Shrine

　　I visited Usa Jingu Shrine, which is one of the representative shrines along with Ise Jingu Shrine. I'd like to write about this shrine, but it's far above my English skills. In such a case, I made it a point to quote the English version of their official website, but the official website of Usa Jingu Shrine has no English version. What can I do this time?
　　Anyway, Usa Jingu Shrine dates back to the 6th century. It's the Head Shrine of a total of 40,000 Hachiman-shrines across the country. Three persons are enshrined and I prayed to every deity for people associated with me, including the subscribers of this blog.
　　The day we visited the shrine was the middle day of three consecutive holidays, and so lots of tourists should have occupied the grounds, but it was not so crowded. Naturally we were lucky to park our car without waiting, but people working at souvenir shops were grumbling about the big earthquake which had struck Kyushu in April. Though Usa City hasn't suffered any damage, the number of tourists dramatically went down due to the devastated damage of the principal tourist spot of Mt.Aso related facilities. Without visiting Mt.Aso, the tour of Kyushu would surely become less interesting. The travel coupons which the Government issued would be considerably effective to activate the tourism in Kyushu, I thought.

宇佐神宮の説明をするには僕の知識はあまりにも貧弱すぎる。こういうとき、これまでは英語のサイトを紹介するだけにしていたのだが、神社の公式ウェブサイトは日本語でしか書かれていない。どうしたものか。とにかく、この神社の歴史は６世紀までさかのぼる。全国にある八幡様４万社の総本山で、多くの文献に現れてもいる。３人の神様が祀られており、それぞれの神に自分に繋がるすべての人の幸福を祈念した。(和気清麻呂については英語力が追いつかず、、、)
この日、三連休にもかかわらず境内は混んではいない。駐車場の係員に尋ねると通常の半分にも満たないらしい。宇佐神宮の周辺は地震の影響は無かったが九州の中心的な観光地、阿蘇山の観光が出来ないことで、九州全体の観光客が激減し、観光産業はかなり厳しいらしい。政府の発行したクーポンはかなりタイムリーな対策だと思われた。