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Some people joke that there are more shrines than convenience stores in Kyoto. Naturally, that's not true, but it's a playful analogy: there are indeed many shrines in Kyoto. Among the many large and small shrines in Kyoto, Yasaka Shrine in Gion is well worth a visit.
📝 Yasaka Shrine
Yasaka Shrine is spread all over Japan, and it is said that there are 3,000 Yasaka Shrines throughout the country, with Kyoto Yasaka Shrine being the head shrine, located at the easternmost end of Shijo-dori Street. The origin of this shrine varies, with some saying that it was founded as a senshinken (temple) by the monk Maruru in the Heian period to welcome the bull-headed heavenly king who was the guardian of the Gion Seika Shrine, while others believe it originated from the Gion Tenshindo (hall of the god of Gion) built by monks who practiced Buddhist monasticism, and yet another says that the guardian god of the shrine is the god of the Yasaka family, the “Watarai people” of Goguryeo, and that the god of Yasaka Shrine is the god of the Gion Seika Shrine. Another theory is that the guardian deity of this place is the Yasaka clan god of the “Watarai people” from Goguryeo, and the legend of bringing the god from Mt. Either way, this shrine is closely related to Buddhism. Indeed, the name “Gion,” where Yasaka Shrine is located, is derived from the name of “Gion Seika,” a Buddhist temple in the northern part of India, which was the main place where Shakyamuni preached the Dharma during the period when he was in the world. Yasaka Shrine was established as a shrine with both a deity and a Buddha, but it was not fully transformed into a shrine until 1868, when a decree was issued to separate the deity from the Buddha.
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Nowadays, Yasaka Shrine is one of the symbols of Kyoto. It is particularly well known for its annual summer festival, the Gion Matsuri, in which various festivals are held around Yasaka Shrine in the Gion area for a whole month in July, culminating in a parade of yamaboko (floats) in a luxurious colorful float.
Yasaka Shrine is a shrine of shrines because it is not just one shrine, but a collection of 22 shrines, including Daikoku Shrine, which prays for a good marriage, Hajime Shrine, which breaks bad karma, Oniisha Shrine, which protects farming, and Otaisha Shrine, which improves the luck of arts and crafts....... The many wishes of human beings and the detailed division of work of the shrine are especially well experienced in Yasaka Shrine. Yasaka Shrine is a place where you can experience the many wishes of mankind and the detailed division of labor.
Yasaka Shrine's main hall is dedicated to the deities of Soto Omotenashi, Kushida Himeji, and Hachiju Goko. Since the gods and Buddhas were originally placed side by side, the architectural style of the temple was characterized by Buddhist features, and the construction of the main hall and the worship hall, which share a large roof, is also known as the Gion-zukuri style. The existing hall was built in 1654 (the 3rd year of the reign of Shogun Ietsuna, the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa Dynasty), and has an elegant hinoki-bayashi roof.
There is a legend about the temple that there is a huge pond under the main hall where a blue dragon lives. The water source of this dragon's vein continues to Shinzen-en in the west of Heian-kyo and Touji Temple in the south. It has been found that if you clap your hands vigorously to the west while standing under the pillar on the east side of the main hall, the echo is the loudest, and because of the legend of the blue dragon, this echo is also known as “the dragon's roar”.
The dance hall is filled with lanterns from the offerings of the tea houses and kaiten in the Gion area, bearing the motifs and names of each house.
Hirukosha is a shrine that specializes in “business prosperity” and “luck and good fortune,” and the main deity of the shrine is the “main god of the business generation.”
Mimomae Shrine, as its name suggests, is a shrine for the pursuit of beauty, and the three goddesses enshrined in the shrine are the gods of art and beauty. In front of the shrine, there is also “beauty water” that naturally gushes out, and many passers-by wash their faces and hands with the water.
If you want to improve your aesthetic ability, you may want to visit Kyoto to receive some inculcation. The high level of architectural design and subsequent continuous aesthetic enhancement make Kyoto an aesthetic museum.
Yasaka Shrine, like many shrines in Japan, has a courtyard covered with gravel. The Japanese people seem to have a unique affinity for listening to the sounds of their feet as they walk. Many poems have been written about the sound of falling leaves in late fall, the feeling of stepping on ice in the dead of winter, and the feeling of putting your feet in the snow for the first time when it snows heavily. When you walk in a shrine garden, the gravel under your feet makes a distinctive rustling sound. In Japanese, this type of gravel is called “tamasuri,” in which the word “tamasuri” means “soul” or “deity. The word “jade” means “soul” or “spirit. Walking on the tamasuri, you can't move too fast, so your heart slows down. Walking along the path from the main gate to the main hall, one completes the transition from the hurried and secular to the calm and sacred.
- Author:japan guides
- URL:https://japan-guides.com/article/culture-36
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