Shinto shrineAnjo · JP
Furui Shrine
Furui Shrine (古井神社, Furui-jinja) sits in the Furuichi quarter of Anjo, Aichi, a short walk from Mikawa-Furui Station on the Meitetsu Nishiō Line. To a first-time visitor it reads as a quiet neighbourhood shrine—low hedges, a single torii, and a timber worship hall tucked among trees—but its name reaches back to one of the oldest legends in this part of old Mikawa province. The town of "Furui"—literally "old well"—takes its name from a storied spring counted among the Four Wells of Mikawa, said in legend to have been dug by Yamatohime-no-mikoto, the imperial princess who travelled the land seeking a permanent resting place for the sun goddess Amaterasu at Ise. Near the shrine, the Old Well site is preserved as a designated historic landmark of Anjo, tying this modest grounds to the deep mythology of the Yahagi River plain.