I just got back from my fourth trip to Japan, and my first trip to it for work. You can see my presentation here, with the caveat that the most interesting discussions took place over food and drinks of course.* Despite being a work trip, I made sure to indulge my inner pagan genius loci sympathies and visit as many Shinto Shrines as I could. This is not just because I like them for aesthetic and philosophical reasons, but because they show how some bureaucratization and standardization can actually help polytheist cultures survive in a world where more centrally organized competitors often dominate. Also, and more importantly, they offer interesting inspiration for how one would set up their own localized folk-mythological centers, adjusted to their own cultural context, architecture, and folk heroes…a practice suggested by an Japanese Shinto priest himself in one of the better books I have read on the subject.
First, I have pictures of more famous shrines elsewhere, including Chikubushima, an island that can only be accessed by ferry that might have been the highlight of the trip. Nevertheless, let us start with the less famous side-shrines of the quite popular Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. This already shows that hidden in plain sight are some of the coolest (what the kids might call) liminal spaces.
On my last trip, I realized that my favorite shrine, even including the big famous ones, was Oyama Shrine in Kanazawa. It had the most unique character and was both small enough to not be crowded with fame, yet was large enough to have a distinct grounds and atmosphere. It made me determined to specifically seek out more local and less famous shrines that were still hefty in their own way on my next trip.
What follows are my highlights. By no means a total of visited shrines, these are the ones that stuck out to me.
In Hikone there was a Lake Biwa beachfront neighborhood shrine between some residential buildings that was quiet and localy-stately that it was a happy circumstantial find. This is Hakusan Shrine:
Also in Hikone, Chiyo Shrine is for artists and actors, and if wishes being granted is to be believed, is the reason my dying phone managed to last until I returned to the U.S. to get a new one:
Also, one of the smaller side-shrines on Chikubushima stood out to me for its snake motif:
While I spent the most amount of time in Kyoto, I made sure to only visit less famous and more local shrines I had not been to before (Yakasa being the big exception).
Shimogamo Shrine was the oldest and most famous of these, but it was still new to me and the foreign tourists seem not to be aware of it. It was where I would buy my first Goshouin book, whose pages I would attempt to fill with stamps at all shrines who had them on offer:
This little neighborhood shrine in Gion had quite the stream front and central location, and looked perfect at night:
But from here on out it was downsizing to the more local. In this case the hill east of the university, known as Yoshidayama Park, was an absolute smorgasbord. This included Yoshida Shrine, the only hexagonal shrine and the only one that claims to house all of the gods.
There were other shrines around here too, often for physical health and the like. Connected to each other by forested paths:
My favorite shrine of the trip appears in this area: Takenaka Inari Shrine. I admit to having a bias in favor of Inari Shrines in general, but this one at the top of a hillside affluent neighborhood as well as on the fringe of the greater Yoshida complex really struck me. When we arrived there was no one else there. Just the fox statues, the birds, and a very unique little honden and miniature No theater stage. I could have lingered here for hours but we had a conference to get back to. It gets three pictures:
I can’t say Takenaka has displaced Oyama at the top of my list, but they are tied. Oyama’s buildings are cooler, but Takenaka had the better grounds. So there’s a personal favorite for each recent trip.
My Gogsouincho. I will bring it back to get more calligraphy and stamps next time. I always swore one day to go to Hokkaido…
You know sometimes you search online for a blog post you know must exist only not to be able to find it? Yeah, well that was this one. I couldn’t find quite what I wanted to I had to make it myself.
*Additionally, let it be known that I myself am a bit of a skeptic on this subject, but if Rubio wants to force the issue of these discussions I am more than happy to beat him at his own game and with his own logic. There is, after all, a kind of state that is not quite just empire and not quite just nation state so its worth engaging with.
