I edged up as close as I could get to the entrance and leaned over the fence to take this picture of the altar inside the main room. The object in the middle appeared to be a large mirror. These are common in shrines because one of the main gods, Amaterasu-oo-mikami, was a sun god. The statue is probably a man named Date (pronounced da-tay) who was an extremely powerful ruler in this area. He was so strong that he even establish fortified trading posts to the south of Tokyo. The first I heard of Date, out side of a history book, was when I lived in Shizuoka prefecture, near Hamamatsu. One day I was exploring and found a small shrine on the inland side of some large rice paddies. Beside the shrine entrance there was a sign explaining that around the year 1600 the rice paddies were a large saltwater pond with open access to the sea. Date had build a port and trading center here. Also a couple of kilometers away, he had build a small castle. He controlled the area with his large number of ships that sailed down from Sendai.
Beside the main building were two flags, with the shrine name and pictures of Date. At the far end of the fenced walkway I noticed a torii, so I walked down to see why it was there.
This is a close up of the torii in the above picture.
I passed through and discovered a small shrine on the far side of an artificial pond.
Inside the shrine there was another shrine. Whatever is enshrined here, a mirror, a statue, or something, is inside the smaller shrine but the doors were closed so I could not see.
The pond was muddy but some very pretty flowers were flowing down from the banks, making me glad I walked over to see this place.
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