At the top of the stairs is the main shrine at Tsurugaoka shrine. Sadly (again), interior pictures are not allowed:
Looking down the stairs:
The guardians at the entrance to the shrine:
Torii (gates) leading to an inari (fox) shrine:
The shrine itself. It is quite small, compared with everything else at the site:
Inarii shrines are associated with foxes, general wellbeing and prosperity, and rice. They are some of the most prevalent shrines one can find (2970 registered shrines, but others that are not registered as well):
I'm getting the impression that shrines are one of the main tourist features in Japan. Interesting that there are so many of them.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, there are a great many of them. I would say they are visited as much or more by Japanese citizens as they are by tourists like myself. It can spike as well - for example, when we were there it was just after Sestsubun, the day before Spring in the old Japanese Calendar. This is considered to set the tone for the new year, so visiting a shrine is part of the tradition.
DeleteAlong Leigh's line, I wonder how many shrines there are in Japan? They seem to be thickly populated.
ReplyDeleteEd, thanks to the wonders of the InterWeb, there are more than 79,000 registered Shinto shrines (100,000 if you count roadside shrines) and around 80,000 Buddhist temples.
DeleteTo be fair, they are denser in places with historical significance, like Tokyo or Kamakura.