Karasaki Jinja Shrine

Karasaki Jinja, established in 692 on the western shore of Lake Biwa, enshrines Wakesuki-hime no Mikoto, a deity known for healing gynecological conditions, and draws visitors who come to pray for health as much as for the famous pine tree on the grounds. That pine, now in its third generation, is the descendant of a tree praised in the 8th-century poetry collection Man'yoshu. Its second-generation ancestor was painted by Utagawa Hiroshige as one of the Eight Views of Omi, and a wooden plaque near the current tree carries a haiku by Matsuo Basho in its honor. The tree is old and broad, spreading far over the lakeshore.