Everyone who visits Japan will inevitably visit some famous temple or shrine, snap a few pictures and be done with it. But your visit can be made more memorable if you collect Goshu-in, unique stamps that each shrine or temple makes for visitors. You’ll need a special book which opens accordion style, which you will…
Tag: shrine
Mikoshi
The centerpiece of many Japanese festivals is the mikoshi, a traveling shrine which is meant to be carried from a main shrine into the surrounding neighborhood. Though there are religious aspects of the mikoshi, many simply view it as a cultural icon around which community is built and fostered. Carrying the mikoshi is considered an…
Fortune Telling
Fortune telling is big business in Japan and one only needs to visit a Shinto shrine to find out how many people desire a purported peek at their futures. Omikuji are little paper fortunes that can be purchased for a token fee. The fortunes are general, but can be anything from lucky to a major curse….
Tohoku Week – Shiogama Jinja
Topping a small hill overlooking Shiogama town in Miyagi Prefecture, this fairly large shrine complex has a history of over 1,000 years, surviving earthquakes, fires and tsunamis. It can be included as part of an itinerary containing the Shiogama and Matsushima towns and is well worth a long stroll around the picturesque buildings, pine forests…
Torigoe Matsuri
Torigoe Shrine would probably be just another obscure little shrine in Tokyo’s shitamachi (“low town” loosely interpreted as the working-class district) if not for one feature: its huge four ton mikoshi (portable shrine). Once a year, the people living around the shrine literally fight for the right to carry the shrine in a procession on…
Sanno Matsuri Parade
Sanno Matsuri is one of the three major festivals of Tokyo, but don’t expect the millions of spectators that festivals like Sanja Matsuri have. What Sanno Matsuri lacks in attendance it makes up for in stature; it is one of the few festivals that is attended by the Emperor…sort of. In truth, the festival comes…
Shinto Wedding
Witnessing a wedding procession through a Shinto shrine is a grand and colorful affair, a parade of beautiful traditional costumes and relatives in fine suits and kimono. Seeing such an event taking place in an ancient shrine would make you believe you are witnessing a custom dating back centuries, even a millennium. But you’d be…
Miko
Miko are young girls working at Shinto shrines, usually in menial positions selling charms or cleaning the grounds. They are easily recognizable by their white haori jacket, red hakama pants and ribbons in their hair. The modern miko is likely just a university student working a part-time job, but historically, miko were much more involved in…
靖国園 Yasukuni Garden
Many visitors to Japan might choose to skip Yasukuni Shrine as a destination due to its controversial status in the international community. And that would be a shame because Yasukuni is one of the most beautiful places for 花見 cherry blossom viewing in the Spring. Those who do a little exploring might find this hidden gem:…
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