Kifune Jinja, Part 2

 This is the front of the shrine. The light brown object inside the door at the bottom is a donation box. People usually give the god a small, 1, 5, and 10 yen being very frequent, gift. The ritual varies a little from shrine to shrine but almost always consists of pulling on the rope (which is connected to a bell) to make a sound to alert the god that you are there, giving a small gift, clapping your hand and a moment of silence (pray?). At the beginning of the process, at the end, and sometimes in the middle, too, you bow to show your respect.

Behind the door and at the back there will be an altar, usually inside a closed cabinet. The altar often contains a mirror but in the few that I have actually seen there have been a variety of objects.

 I walked around to the side and took this picture which is looking out through the door. You can see the donation box on the bottom left.

 At the side there was a door to get inside. If you look closely you can see that the lock is not securing the door. It is only attached to one side. What is keep the door shut is a piece of plastic string that is tying the handles together.

 On the other side there was a stele with a bas-relief carving of a human figure. I have no idea who it represents.

 This is a close up of the row of bottles and cans that can be seen in front of the door in the first picture. The two cans are beer, the bottles are Japanese sake, and the box is fruit juice. Alcohol is very closely associated with the gods and is present in abundance at festivals. When I first came to Japan, these gifts were left unopened, but as economic conditions worsened and the number of homeless grew, some people started taking the gifts and drinking them. So the practice gradually changed and now most drinks or food is opened before it is left for the gods.

Under the trees I found this stele. The two kanji at the top mean mountain god. There were some smaller characters at the bottom but they were too worn for me to read.

Kifune Jinja

 I finally located the entrance to the shrine (jinja in Japanese). It was rather rundown to say the least. The torii at the entrance was broken. The missing piece were nowhere to be found so, between that fact and a look at the worn surfaces of the breaks, I assume that it was destroyed long ago. Also as you can see the grass has not been cut. I took this picture over a fence, like those on either side of the stairs. To reach the stairs I had to walk back about 10 meters and then walk along the public space beside a drainage ditch. Also I was unable to determine the pronunciation of the name of the shrine. Later I asked a couple of Japanese people but they did not know. I finally found it on a website that showed all the shrines and temples in Izumi-ku. The name is a special reading of the kanji, kifune jinja, which phonetically means sacred boat shrine. At this point we are less than 20 kilometers away from the sea which may have been visible before all the modern buildings were erected. This area was, in the past, a maritime power, establishing trading forts all the way to Shizuoka Prefecture and was heavily involved in national politics and power struggles.

 At the top of the flight of stairs, the guardian lions were worn almost beyond recognition. From the above mentioned website, I found that the shrine is two or three hundred years old, so it is likely that the lions have been there since it was first built.

 At the top of a second flight of stairs there was a long narrow unpaved path. This is the view back toward the stairs.

 Turning around, I faced the shrine and took this picture. It is physically quite small but I could see nothing unusual about it.

The protector lions at the shrine are new and in very good shape, as are the stone lanterns behind them.