Finding Hideyoshi’s Shrine - A Scavenger Hunt (Mahala)

For my scavenger hunt, I was given the hint:

Find the main shrine to Hideyoshi in Kyoto and also the uncomfortable memorial to his invasions of Korea nearby.

My first step in this journey was establishing what this “uncomfortable memorial” was my assumption that Hideyoshi had many shrines in the country due to his very important status in Japanese history. So, I knew that my location was in Kyoto (because of my university’s location, and the destination of our class trip) and I looked up any Korean memorials that could be connected to Hideyoshi. My research led me to the Mimizuka site. It is the burial mound of the noses of 38,000 Koreans that were taken as war trophies during the Hideyoshi invasions. It is a one minute walk to the shrine that honors the man responsible for the mound.

Upon further research I learned that the shrine has a pretty complicated history. The original site was torn down and buried by Tokugawa Ieyasu and was then rebuilt by Emperor Meiji about 200 years later. The initial destruction was because Tokugawa Ieyasu felt that honoring the man that he replaced was offensive to his position. However, Emperor Meiji believed that the people should honor Hideyoshi to reconnect with their national history and pride.

So I had my location and I just needed to visit. On a very hot Saturday, I took the train into Kyoto and first found Mimizuka. I did not stay for long, as it freaked me out to stand in front of something so dark. The gate to the mound was closed, and there was trash in front of it. This made me quite sad. I then walked to the shrine, which was also a short visit since most of the shrine was closed off. I had gone during unconventional hours during the work week, so that’s probably why it was closed. At the shrine, there were the main steps which led to where you drop your 5 yen coins and pray, and they were paralleled with two ema holders. Ema are wooden plaques that people write wishes on and leave them at the shrine. In the front of the shrine there was a statue of Hideyoshi.

These places are significant because of the fact that Hideyoshi was such an important person in Japanese history. He was one of the three men responsible for the unification of Japan. In his time of power, he led two separate invasions of Korea, which resulted in Mimizuka. Later in the Meiji period he became a symbol of Japanese nationalism and identity, which resulted in his shrine being rebuilt. Japanese history would be completely different if not for Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Mimizuka

Prayer altar

Stature of Hideyoshi