Kamo Jinja

After posting the first pictures of Kamo Jinja yesterday, I did a little checking. I knew that kamo means a kind of wild duck in Japanese, but the kanji are different in the shrine name. The standard meaning of duck is given by a single kanji but the shrine name is composed of two kanji. These two kanji are used as place names in many areas but the main one seems to be in Tokyo. Since old Japanese often used kanji phonetically, it is likely that the area in Tokyo was once full of ducks. Also it appears that the place name is also used for a Shinto god, called Kamo Meijin, who represents happiness for all the world. I assume that this is the god who is enshrined here.

 The shrine area inside the final torii was not large, just a few buildings. On my left was an old shrine that was covered by a wall-less building to protect it from the weather.

 It was a typical old shrine that probably had originally been painted red but, if that was so, there was no longer any evidence of it. As usual the door was closed so you could not see the altar inside.

 Straight ahead there were two identical shrines. These were newer and painted the traditional bright red. I do not know much about it but some shrines have two identical buildings or they alternate between two identical buildings that are periodically rebuilt. The Grand Shrine at Ise immediately comes to mind in this regard. At Ise there are two sacred areas, side by side, but only one of them is in use at any given time. The other was torn down and will be rebuild so that it can be used again after twenty years.

 Here is the other building. Notice that the only way to tell them apart is that the flags and bell ropes are reversed. Otherwise, they are identical.

 On my right was another small, older shrine. As you can see, this one was decorated with some trash barrels.

This is what the side of the double buildings looked like. As is usual there was a walkway that allowed access to the side of the building. These areas are sometimes used during festivals or ceremonies.