In the heart of Matsumoto city, close to the Matsumoto City Art Museum and the Performing Arts Center, Tenjin Fukashi Jinja is a small but beautifully decorated shrine to two particular gods: Tenjin (a god of scholarly achievement and success) and Suwa-Myojin (a god of war who also blesses agriculture). The shrine holds a two-day festival every year from July 24th to 25th.

For the casual: 5. For the educated: 4.

I really enjoyed this shrine and its lovely colors. Following an Edo Period style of architecture and ornamentation, the shrine is largely vermillian with accents of color and gold. In modern cities where everything tends to run in the gray scale, I really enjoy these moments when you can walk into an area and just be filled with color and beauty. Though I didn’t rank it very high on my scale, I think that it should be a location that visitors should at least pass through when in the area because of how its beauty can be shared with everyone.