Confidence
| Field | Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Page identity | 99% | Pink-papered inside front-cover with a single round red sakura seal and a printed Japanese poem in vermillion ink, framed in a thin red border. The bottom-margin caption explicitly attributes the cover artwork: 「Flow – April in Japon : SAKURA SAKU」 by Bunta Inoue. |
| Issuing shrine | 99% | The poem is signed at lower-left 「熊本城内 加藤神社」 ("Katō Jinja, within Kumamoto Castle"), identical naming and framing to all other Katō Jinja goshuincho colophon variants. |
What this page is
This is the inside front-cover colophon of the goshuincho — a printed page that prefaces the stamps and explains the cover's provenance. It is not a hand-brushed goshuin, but it's part of the book itself, included here because it's the visual entry point to every page that follows.
- Page type: Printed colophon / artist statement, vermillion ink on pink Japanese paper (washi)
- Position in book: Inside front cover, facing the first goshuin page
- Issued by: 加藤神社 (Katō Jinja), inside Kumamoto Castle main bailey
Reading the colophon
| Element | Reading | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Round sakura seal | Stylised cherry-blossom branch — Katō Jinja's recurring motif | Top-left, large red round |
| 春、熊本の大地に咲く桜。 | "Spring — cherry blossoms blooming on the land of Kumamoto." | First column, top right |
| その儚くも力強い美しさを、… | A poem in praise of the fragile-yet-strong beauty of the cherry blossom. | Centre, vertical brushwork |
| 熊本産の桜から抽出した、天然染料で染め上げた特別な和紙 | "Special washi paper dyed with natural pigment extracted from Kumamoto-grown cherry trees." | Lower right |
| この度加藤神社の拝殿天井画を奉納する画家・井上文太氏による桜の絵画が、表紙を飾ります | "The cover is decorated with cherry-blossom paintings by the artist Bunta Inoue, who offered a haiden ceiling painting to Katō Jinja." | Mid-left |
| 時を超えて咲き続ける桜のように、あなたのお参りの記憶を、美しく刻みましょう。 | "Like the cherry trees that bloom across time, may the memory of your pilgrimage be beautifully inscribed here." | Lower-centre |
| 熊本城内 加藤神社 | "Within Kumamoto Castle — Katō Jinja" | Bottom-left signature |
| 表紙の作品『Flow – April in Japon : SAKURA SAKU』by Bunta Inoue | Cover-artwork credit, bottom margin caption | Below the framed text |
Why it's worth its own page
Most goshuincho are mass-produced books with generic covers and no introduction. This one is a custom artist collaboration: Bunta Inoue painted a haiden ceiling for Katō Jinja using cherry-tree pigment from Kumamoto-grown trees, and the same artwork is reproduced as the cover. The colophon explicitly ties the book object — paper stock, ink, art — to the place and the act of pilgrimage, which is rare and worth documenting before the goshuin entries themselves.
See also
- Front cover — Cherry-blossom artwork (Inoue's Flow – April in Japon: SAKURA SAKU) printed on the exterior front cover.
- Back cover — Teal-turquoise continuation of the same artwork on the inside back cover, with Katō Jinja's gold-foil identification seal at centre.
- Entry 01 — Katō Jinja Sakura Mōde — the first hand-brushed goshuin received in this book on 21 March 2025, the day of issuance.