Yasui Konpira-gu is one of Green Shinto’s favourite shrines.
It’s in the heart of Kyoto, next to Gion’s traditional geisha era. It’s small but full of history, and it houses the country’s first ema museum. It is famous for … Read the rest
Category: Shrine visits (Page 9 of 21)
A morning programme on KBS television this morning saw a pair of maiko visit Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. Maiko are young trainee geisha in Kyoto, aged between 16 and 20. These days many are from distant parts of Japan … Read the rest
Yesterday was a glorious sunny day in Kyoto, and armed with the guidebook Shinto Shrines and Hugo Kempeneer’s Yasaka postings on the Kyoto Dream Trips blog, I set off with Chris Cooling (Communications Assistant at Jinja Honcho) for … Read the rest
Yesterday marked the official end of the month-long Gion Festival, with a purification ritual at Yasaka Jinja involving a chinowa (large ring of cogon grass), to complete the circle as it were. Unfortunately I arrived in the cool of … Read the rest
Following the historic conference at Ise Jingu, members of ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation) were taken on a tour of Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, a World Heritage site. The shrine dates back to a time before Kyoto was … Read the rest
It’s not well-known, yet it was founded in 887, it’s got a pair of guardian rats, and its ‘sacred body’ is the 15th hill of Kyoto’s 36 Eastern Hill range. It lies off the Philosopher’s Walk, and while most … Read the rest
The following is part one of a series on shrines and shrine buildings, abridged and adapted from the Introduction of Shinto Shrines by Joseph Cali and John Dougill (mainly the former, I hasten to add). The book was … Read the rest