Hoshida Myoken-gu Shrine

The legend attached to this shrine is unusually specific. In 816, Kobo Daishi is said to have performed a ritual on a hill in Katano, and a star fell to earth and broke into three pieces, one landing here. The shrine that grew around the spot is dedicated to Myoken, the deification of the north star, which makes it one of very few shrines in Japan built around a star rather than a mountain, a river or an ancestor.

The object of worship is not a building. It is the Orihime-seki, a large boulder standing high on the wooded slope, reached by a long flight of stone steps. That makes a visit part short hike and part prayer, and the climb takes about fifteen minutes at a steady pace.

The location is not a coincidence. Katano is Tanabata country: the Amanogawa, the river named after the Milky Way, runs through the city, and the local place names follow the legend of the weaver and the cowherd separated across the sky. The shrine has marked the festival for centuries, and in early July the grounds are hung with coloured streamers and the wishes people write on them.

Its goshuin, the stamp collected in a book at shrines, is star-themed and elaborate enough that collectors travel here for it alone. Students come before exams, and the shrine's other reputation is for matchmaking, which follows naturally from a Tanabata site.

Hoshida station on the JR Katano line is about twenty-five minutes away on foot. Hoshida Park nearby has one of Japan's largest wooden-decked suspension footbridges, 280 metres across a wooded gorge, and the two make a decent half-day out of Osaka.