Historical Artifacts Museum (Ari)

I ended up at the Satake Historical Museum mostly via a happy accident. Last Sunday, my flower arranging class was on a field trip to downtown Akita for a flower arranging exhibition. We all took a bus at eleven in the morning, and when we were finished at one in the afternoon, I was allowed to remain in downtown Akita and explore the city. I asked my professor for directions to the museum, but that was a challenge, since I had forgotten the name (Akita has many museums), I was feeling fairly uncertain with her directions. She assured me to simply keep walking past the lotus garden, up the hill, to Senshu Park, and it would be somewhere near the castle. I picked the second museum I found in that area and hope that I was right. 

Well, luckily, it turns out I was right. Trust your intuition, kids.

The museum was a stark contrast to the surrounding castles and shrines, with its boxed shape and concrete exterior. It had a small garden at the front, and a few memorial stone tablets and statues outside.

The memorial stone tablet. Cool, right?

The statue and museum were in dedication to Satake Yoshinobu, the man who lost to Tokugawa Ieyasu in the battle of Sekigahara and, as the loser of this battle, was forced to move to what is presently known as Akita. The museum’s artifacts were all related to Satake. (See below)

Senshu Park in itself is quite beautiful, and after I had explored the museum, I ventured through the various nature paths and shrines. It was a beautiful day to do it, and I will probably remember that day for the rest of my life. (Bonus picture: Shrine of my favorite Kami, Inari. Inari is the goddess (although she is worshipped as a man in the regions south of Tohoku) of rice, foxes, and fertility in general. Of all the Kami in Japan, she has the most shrines dedicated to her.)

Bonus picture: Shirne of my favorite kami, Inari. Inari is the goddess (although worshiped as a man in the regions south of Tohoku) of  rice, foxes, and fertility in general. Of all the kami in Japan, she has the most shrines dedicated to her.