🐎 Horse-Shaped GPS Art Around Inaba Shrine 🗻
This 16km GPS art course invites you to create the silhouette of a horse as you explore the historic heart of Gifu City, beginning with the venerable Inaba Shrine. Within the shrine grounds stands a sacred horse statue engraved with the shrine crest, symbolizing the ancient belief that horses serve as divine vehicles. Since the Nara period, dedicating horses for prayers and rituals became a common custom, and traces of this tradition continue today in the form of sacred horse statues preserved at the shrine. As Gifu was once a key crossroads for routes leading toward the mountainous Hida region, horses played an essential role in transportation, and remnants of this heritage remain visible in local place names, stone monuments, and regional lore.
The course leads you from Inaba Shrine to Kashimori Shrine, Gifu Zenkoji Anjoin Temple, and the Gifu branch of Honganji Temple—sites that reflect the layered religious and cultural history of the former castle town. You will also pass through the lively urban core, including the Gifu City Hall area, the long-established Nagasakiyahonten, and the retro-charming Yanagase Shopping Street. The district retains the atmosphere of its castle-town origins, with narrow lanes, long-standing shops, and preserved traditional architecture that reveal a different face at every turn.
As you follow the route, the streets of Gifu serve as your canvas, and your movement traces the form of a horse—an animal deeply intertwined with the region’s spiritual and cultural traditions. This GPS art course offers not only an invigorating walk but also an enriching encounter with Gifu’s historical depth, urban character, and timeless religious landscapes.
Begin your New Year visit with a creative twist and enjoy this unique blend of pilgrimage, city exploration, and GPS artistry.
DETAIL (EXTERNAL LINK)
A PIONEER IN GPS ART.
1st work was authorized by Guinness World Records as “the Largest GPS Drawing”.
He is the only Japanese person to be featured in a Google documentary as an innovator. He is fascinated by the idea of drawing with GPS and has published more than 2,500 works.
