Karematsu Shrine 枯松神社

The shrine was constructed to mark the gravesite of San Juan, a Spanish Franciscan friar who was buried here by local people after he died of cold and hunger. San Juan is famous as the mentor of Bastian, the Japanese evangelist who compiled the Japanese church calendar and prophesied the end of Christian persecution.

Inside the current shrine are two miniature stone shrines. The larger one in the center dates from 1933, while the smaller one to the left is from the Meiji era (1868–1912).

The place was originally known as Jiwan (Japanese for “Juan”) Karematsu. The word karematsu literally means “dry pines,” but any pines that once stood here have been replaced by camphor trees. The flat stretches of ground around the shrine once served as Christian graveyards, and the flat stones now piled up as terracing may originally have been gravestones.

Down the hill is a small graveyard dating from 1990; it includes family gravestones combining elements from three religions. There is a Christian tombstone marked with a gilded cross and Western baptismal names on one side; a Buddhist upright stone with kaimyo posthumous names in the center; and a small, bulbous Taoist monument on the far side.

Since 1999, the shrine has hosted an interfaith ceremony known as the Karematsu Festival every November, in which local Catholics, Hidden Christians, and Buddhists all pray together for the repose of their ancestors. (This is not open to the public.)