Shimogamo Shrine (2)

Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto
下鴨神社（京都）

I’ve lived in Kyoto city nearly 10 years. Since I got involved in guiding overseas visitors, I’ve been to many places guiding and for research. There are more than 3,000 temples and shrines, many of them are not open to the public, it is impossible to visit them all, not that I intended to try it anyway.


Perhaps it’s surprising that in that time I’ve never visited such a well known shrine as Shimogamo. I always associate it with the Aoi (holyhock) festival which takes place in May and is one of the three major festivals in Kyoto along with Gion-Matsuri in July and Jidai-Matsuri in October. Though I thought it a must-see-place my daily routine makes it difficult to pop in. Anyway, it can be seen as a good example both of grandiose-scale shrine architecture and Shinto ritual practice.

I’ll tell you a little about Shimogamo Shrine.

The origin is unknown but it is one of the oldest shrines in the city and existed before the formation of Kyoto as a family shrine of indigenous Kyoto clan, Kamo. The official name is Kamomioya-Jinja (jinja means Shinto shrine), but nobody calls it that and uses the familiar name, Shimogamo-Jinja. Although the shrine is located in the centre of the city it still has a decent amount of woodland around it creating a pleasant atmosphere, enough to forget you are in the city centre. It is designated a World Heritage Site along with other temples and shrines in Kyoto.

Heian Shrine Shin-en garden

Shin-en garden, Heian Jingu Shrine, Okazaki Park, Kyoto
平安神宮 神苑(京都/岡崎公園)

I sometimes take guests to Heian (Jingu) shrine, but there aren’t many occasions we visit the garden partly because there’s an admission fee but mainly because of a lack of time.

Today I’ll show you its garden. The second week of June I was requested to take guests to the garden even though they had been to the shrine on a bus tour. I heard that they didn’t enjoy the shrine and it didn’t make any sense wishing to go there again.

When we arrived I finally understood they wanted to see its garden, not the shrine itself.



Japanese iris was almost in full-bloom and water lilies were just coming into bloom. The garden was breathtakingly beautiful.
I’ve been there many times and didn’t appreciate it much. The visit changed my opinion. The garden is transformed by the flowers. It is also a popular destination for cherry blossom viewing which should be lovely as well.


Those two buildings were transferred from the Imperial Palace when the garden was built in 1912 by a prominent gardener Ogawa Jihei, the pioneer of the modern Japanese garden.




Official site/The Garden (English)
Official site/Access (English)

O'otoyo Shrine

Otoyo Shrine, off Philosopher’s Path, Kyoto
大豊神社(京都)

Otoyo shrine (大豊神社) is a tiny shrine, near Eikan-do (永観堂) temple, along Philosopher’s Path. It’s popular among Japanese for its statues of guardians. Generally shrine’s guardians are vicious looking Koma-inu (literally means Korean dogs), however this shrine has lovely version of its kind. It attracts Japanese visitors even though the shrine isn’t especially significant.

Kitano-Tenmangu Shrine

Kitano-Tenmangu Shrine, Kyoto
北野天満宮(京都)

This shrine is a popular destination for students, because enshrined there is the god of wisdom or study, Sugawara-no-Michizane(菅原道真) known as Tenjin-san(天神さん).


He was a prominent bureaucrat in the Heian period who advised the Emperor to terminate Imperial Japanese embassies to China which had been taking place for over 260 years since A.D.630. Later he was plotted against by an envious rival and exiled to Kyushu where he died in despair. There are many stories and legends about him and he is a popular figure in mystery stories of the city along with Onmyoji(陰陽師) Abe no Seimei(安倍晴明) and the Emperor Sutoku(崇徳天皇).


The other aspect of the shrine is a flea market held on the 25th of every month and the precinct is full of market traders selling kimono, antiques, crafts, plants and so on.

a day out to Fushimi: Fushimi-Inari Shrine

Fushimi-Inari Shrine, Kyoto
伏見稲荷大社(京都/伏見)

Then, we moved to Fushimi-Inari Shine(伏見稲荷大社) which is well-known for its 1,000 torii gates.


The shrine is also one of the most popular to visit for the first shrine visit at New Year in the Kansai area. I had only visited at that time and could hardly see anything but people, consequently the whole site felt surprisingly spacious this time.


Fushimi-Inari Shrine is the head quarter of all the Inari shrines through out Japan. The main god “Inari”, is the god of business. You can easily identify Inari shrines by a pair of fox guardian statues with a torii gate. The fox is considered Inari god’s massager.



Around the shrine are many shops selling this Shinto sect’s products such as miniature red torii gates, statues of foxes, family alters and the like.


Walking towards the mountain, we reach what are said to be “1,000 torii gates”, but in fact the actual number is slightly less than 1,000 now. The path covered with the gates leads up and down the mountain and the route takes 2 hours to walk according to the map.


We were too tired and I preferred not to go this time. Some of us have been along the path before and I put off till the next visit.