Moving to a new place is so much fun – every day is full with new discoveries. In this video I am taking you to my most recent one, the Okamura Tenmangu shrine in Isogo, Yokohama.
A little history and details about the shrine and its patron deity:
This Shinto shrine was built between 1190 and 1198, which makes it more than 800 years old! It is dedicated to Tenjin, a deification of a real person – Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), a famous scholar, poet and politician of the Heian period. Tenjin is the patron kami (deity in Japanese) of scholars, of learning, and of the intelligentsia. Because of that the ema (votive tablets) at his shrines usually cary prayers for successful passing of exams or thanks for the success. His totem animal is the bull and, just like there are foxes guarding the shrines of the shinto goddess Inari, there will always be a statue of a bull at the entrance of a shrine dedicated to Tenjin.
What I loved about the shrine was its cheerful red color that contrasted beautifully with the deep green of the trees around it. I also liked the little shrine dedicated to the Shinto goddess of abundance Inari and the fox statues guarding it. What was fun (and unusual) about the shrine was that there was a small daycare right next to it so the shrine’s yard doubled as a playground of its young attendants. Their cheerful voices add a great BGM to the video 🙂
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In Japanese, the character WA (和) means harmony and equilibrium. The concept of WA can be observed in every aspect of life in Japan: from the way society functions to the harmonious way the elements of a Japanese garden are combined and the elegant, precise movements of a master performing a tea ceremony – all of that is WA and all aim to achieve perfect harmony.
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