A walk with my wife late in the morning

It was overcast and cool today after it had been very wet for the past week. Late in the morning, I told my wife to go for walk together. We used to do that often before. It has been a while since we won't go for that. No reason to stay at home in such comfortable morning. 

It was really suitable for walk. We went to a farming area close to our home. She told me she had taken our dog for walk there often. I have never heard of that. I still remembered of that dog named John, a mixed breed, we kept some 20 years or more ago. Having lived with her for more than 40 years, I thought I had known of almost everything about her life. It was a surprise there was still something unknown to me. 

On the way, there was a small shrine among the farms. Surprisingly, she told me she and the company of the local resident's association used to clean the tiny shrine as one of the duties of the group, when our family was responsible for the management of the association. I have asked my wife and my father to do such duties of the association or for our children. I once again regretted I had not been involved in such activities by myself.

It was the shrine I used to visit by myself and uploaded a few photos in this blog. Among farms, it was not well cared for at all. It was surrounded with high cedar trees and weeds were growing freely. 

The tiny building and the small yard around it were cleaned and looked tidy. The explanation panel said it was named as Inari Shrine founded by a ruling person in the 12th century. The ruler's family name was Nakamura. My address includes Naka which must come after their name. There seemed to be a castle of the ruler, Nakamura, in this area. The ruler, changed the name as Date, was later assigned to govern Sendai area in 16th century. 

The local history tells there had been a lot of wars and struggles when those rulers owned this area until Tokugawa founded the shogunate in Edo, that is, Tokyo at present. The people must have finally had peaceful time then, even though they could sometimes have to endure with the high tax from the shogunate those days.  In the era of war under unstable politics, the people must have worshipped the ancestors and/or something supreme in the world at such a shrine, I believe. That may be a reason why there have been a lot of shrines and of temples built and founded in that era. Our neighbors' association has done the care and cleaning of such shrine. I don't know how long that custom will be carried out, though.

My wife is looking up into GPS of her smart phone. She has no sense of direction and is always helped by GPS. Her costume is that for gardening. A perfect defense against sunray or bugs.   

It was a great walk. I should bring her for another walk soon. It took us almost an hour to go around. While taking a walk together, we could find something we did not know of each other yet.