Hokkaido Jingu

We visited the Hokkaido Jingu Shrine, which is connected to Maruyama Park in Sapporo. The main shrine was originally constructed in 1871 but was destroyed in a fire in 1974. The shrine was restored in 1978. The Hokkaido Jingo is supposed to house 3 Shinto deities as well as the soul of the Meiji Emperor (who initially proclaimed the establishment of the shrine). 

 This is a statue of Yoshitake Shima, who was in charge of initially bringing sacred objects to the shrine from Tokyo. 

As I was taking this picture a guard came over and said not to sit on the stairs. Oops.

After we had thoroughly disrupted the peace of the shrine, we decided to walk through the park. We had initially thought we might make our way down to the zoo located in Maruyama Park, but after walking for a bit we realized we were just too tired.

The park was beautiful though and we enjoyed the serene atmosphere at both the park and the shrine.