So green!

A grave built at the spot where Kusunoki Masatsura is said to have taken his own life, a little northwest of JR Shijonawate Station. To the east, toward Mt. Ikoma, stands Shijonawate Shrine, which enshrines his father, Kusunoki Masashige. It looks as though Masatsura is resting under his father's watchful eye. At the entrance there are stone pillars carved with "忠" (loyalty) on the right and "孝" (filial piety) on the left. On the grounds is a "gravestone" inscribed "楠公父子訣別之所" (Place of Farewell of the Kusunoki Father and Son) and a magnificent camphor tree said to be over 600 years old. Partly because of that magnificent camphor, it had a solemn atmosphere more like a shrine than a cemetery. A mysterious grave that makes you instinctively stand up straight.

The grave of Kusunoki Masatsura in Kariya-minamimachi, Neyagawa, Osaka — the grounds are spacious and easy to visit

The grave site is where Kusunoki Masatsura took his own life at the Battle of Shijonawate in Shohei 3/Jowa 4 (1348). At the entrance to the grave, there are stone pillars carved with "忠" on the right and "孝" on the left, and on the grounds are a "gravestone" inscribed "楠公父子訣別之所", a monument inscribed "贈従三位楠正行朝臣之墓" (original text, handwritten by Okubo Toshimichi), and a giant camphor tree (600 years old, an Osaka Prefecture Designated Natural Monument). It's connected to Shijonawate Shrine by a single road. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the gravestone is seriously huge. I couldn't help blurting out "Whoa, big!" ( ﾟдﾟ)ﾊｯ!

It's a straight line from Shijonawate Shrine, but the shopping street is one-way toward the shrine, so I went around, parked in the lot past the post office, and walked back a bit. 30 min 100 According to the information board, in the 1st month of Shohei 3 (February 1348 AD), Kusunoki Masatsura and his band were killed before the great Northern Court army led by Kō no Moronao. A small stone monument was erected, and about 100 years later some people planted two camphor trees nearby, which grew into old trees around 550 years old covering the monument, apparently. There's also a monument with calligraphy by Okubo Toshimichi, and in front is a building that seems to be a management office, with a poster for a Takarazuka musical based on the story. Looking at wiki and such, he wasn't just the loyal retainer who carried on his father Kusunoki Masashige's will. True, he won battle after battle and drove back powerful generals like Hosokawa Akiuji and Yamana Tokiuji, so to the Northern Court in Kyoto he appeared as an uncanny threat, but he may have been in the peace faction, and even at the Battle of Shijonawate, maybe he wasn't resigned to a glorious death but had some chance of winning? More than that, maybe Kō no Moronao's forces were superior not just in numbers but in tactics? Emperor Go-Daigo's policies are also being reassessed as not so detached from reality, but it was greatly praised before the war and seems to have been developed in various ways during the Showa era, but lately? What caught my eye was an indie pro wrestling poster in the shopping street.