Shōin Shrine and Shōka Sonjuku

photo by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

An 8-tatami school trained two Meiji prime ministers. Its teacher was executed at 29.

Shōka Sonjuku (‘the school under the pine’) began in 1842 as an 8-tatami room set up by Yoshida Shōin's uncle, and a pupil, Nakatani Masasuke, built with him the 10-and-a-half-tatami extension that you see today. Shōin took charge of it in 1857 and in less than two years trained some fifty pupils there, among them Itō Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo, who would both become prime ministers of Meiji Japan, and Takasugi Shinsaku and Kusaka Genzui, known as ‘the two jewels’ of the school. Shōin was executed in 1859, at 29, for conspiring against the shogunate: the shrine that venerates him was founded in 1890 on the initiative of his elder brother, as a small shrine on the Sugi family's land, and became a full shrine in 1907.

The complex includes the Shinto shrine dedicated to Yoshida Shōin, the original school building preserved in its grounds, the Yoshida Shōin history museum and the Shiseikan treasure hall (opened in 2009). Shōka Sonjuku was designated a 史跡 (national Historic Site) on 12 October 1926, and in 2015 it became a component of the UNESCO Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.

ℹ️ Shrine gate open roughly from dawn to dusk, with free entry to the grounds and an outside view of the school. The amulet office and the Shiseikan treasure hall have their own hours and tickets, to be checked with each. Address: 〒758-0011 山口県萩市椿東1537. Nearest station: Higashi-Hagi (JR San'in Line).

🚉 Higashi-Hagi · 16 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · hagishi.com

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