🐎 Draw a Sacred Horse: 2km GPS Art Journey around Usa Shrine 🗻
Near Usa Shrine in Oita Prefecture, a unique 22 km GPS-art route lets you draw the shape of a horse while exploring sacred grounds, historic sites, and natural scenery. Usa Shrine is revered as the head of Hachiman shrines across Japan, and since ancient times white horses have been regarded as divine messengers. Within the shrine grounds you may encounter the living sacred steed, and around the adjacent shrines and sanctuary sites, stones believed to bear the imprint of heavenly horses—so-called “horseshoe stones”—remain as silent testimony to this long-held faith. Every autumn the shrine hosts a Yabusame ritual, a horseback archery ceremony, honoring this enduring bond between horse and spirit.
This GPS-art course begins at Usa Shrine and winds through several points of historical and cultural interest: the old Dairakuji Temple, the sacred remains at the Yamato-Takeru Otsumae relic site, the scenic rural roads leading toward the quaint hot-spring resort of Mahoroba Onsen Usa, and finally near the Oita Prefectural History Museum. As you traverse this route, you move through layers of Japan’s past—from ancient worship to samurai-era memories—while surrounded by gentle countryside and verdant landscapes.
At dawn you may first pass the torii gate of Usa Shrine, begun with reverent footsteps, feeling the quiet grandeur of history. Later the rolling hills and rural fields open before you, carrying a sense of calm and connection to nature. Toward the end, soothing hot-spring steam and local heritage wrap the journey in warmth.
By the time you complete the 22 km loop, your GPS trace will have drawn a horse—an homage to the divine steed that once galloped in these lands, bridging heaven and earth. This isn’t just a walk or run; it’s a pilgrimage, a creative act, and a journey through time. Pair it with your New Year’s prayers to the gods of Usa Shrine, and start the year with strength, peace, and reverence.
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.
