Dazaifu Tenmangu

PRESERVE Selected

Kyushu's most beloved shrine, built over the grave of the scholar-god Sugawara no Michizane and famous for six thousand plum trees that bloom while the rest of Japan is still in winter. Thirty minutes from Fukuoka's golf, best with an umegae-mochi in hand.

Fukuoka students queue here before every exam season; the plum-blossom weeks in February are the shrine at its peak.