Tenmangu Shrines in Mukō City
There are three Tenmangu Shrines in Mukō City alone.
One is located near an elementary school, but it's so small and doesn't even have ox statues. But instead of oxen, several homeless cats are whimsically guarding (?) the shrine.
The second is a small roadside one. Here it is, an ox statue, which is quite old, and a tiny part of the body is chipped off.
The third is the most significant one in the city and specifically called Chiyo Zakura Tenmangu, which comes with an episode:
On a mildly warm spring day, Sugawara Michizane left Kyoto for his long exile journey to Dazaifu. Having crossed the Katsura River, he had arrived at the present Terado town, Mukō city. He saw full-bloom cherry blossoms around one kilometer away in the west. He decided that that hill covered with the flower would be the spot where he could take the last glance of Kyoto, his home.
Arriving at the hill, he saw over 100 beautiful cherry trees almost covering the sky! For a moment, he stood and stared at falling petals blown in a breeze, toward Kyoto. Servants accompanying him thought of the master's feeling and shed concealed tears. Villagers, too, shared the sorrow and later built a shrine to honour this great man, once dubbed a prodigy.
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