Chirokuten Jinja and Kifune Jinja

 I followed the kids down a long, narrow lane that was not particularly artistic, unless you are into worn out plastic siding.

 We did, however, soon arrive at the shrine. There are two shrines on this one lot of land. This is the torii for the Kifune Jinja, a very small shrine, which is hidden in the shadows on the far side of the torii.

This strange little altar is the altar of the shrine and it held three stones. The name Kifune means noble ship (ki = noble, fune = ship), so I do not understand the purpose of the stones. However, since the name of thie other shrine is Chirokuten Jinja, where chi means land, roku means pension or income, and ten means heaven, I think the stones may be representative of the purpose of that shrine in some way. Obviously since the two shrines share the same ground, there is some sort of deep connections between  them. Then again, I could be completely wrong.

 Up under the eaves of the main building of the Chirokuten Jinja were some paintings. This one shows a warrior playing a musical instrument, a biwa, maybe. His outer layer of armor and a bundle of arrows are behind him and he is either attracting or repelling a dragon. To know which, I would have to find the priest associated with the shrine but there are no living quarters here (as with most small shrines) so he would only visit during festivals.

 This picture seems to explain about some pine trees that used to be here.

This shows the corner of the main building on the right, a guardian lion in the center and the torii for the Kifune Jinja on the left.