Isasumi Jinja

Isasumi Jinja.

In the Aizu region of Fukushima — surrounded by mountains, far from the sea — sits a shrine that gave the region its name.

According to the oldest Japanese chronicles, two pioneer commanders, traveling from different directions to pacify the country, met for the first time on this exact spot. The Japanese word for "to meet" is "au." The river that ran past their meeting place was renamed accordingly. The whole region followed. Aizu — "the meeting" — has been called this for nearly two thousand years.

A meeting that founded a region. A meeting that became a name.

The shrine itself is famous for one of Japan's three great rice-planting festivals, held each July. Young women in indigo robes, accompanied by ancient flute and drum, walk slowly into the rice paddies and perform the choreographed gestures of planting. The dance is over a thousand years old.

The plants they pretend to plant are not the actual crop. The actual planting was done weeks earlier. This is something else — a slow, ceremonial recognition that food does not happen by accident.

Aizu winters are heavy. The snow comes early and stays late. The land sleeps for months. Then, in spring, the same fields fill with water, the same dance returns, the same patient work begins again.

Stand at the entrance. The mountains around you cradle this small valley.

Two travelers met here. Two seasons meet here. The shrine remembers the meeting.