Kawai shrine

TEL : 075-781-0010 Address : 59 Shimogamo Izumikawacho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto Access : JR Kyoto Station > (city bus number 4 or 205) > Shimogamo Jinja-mae bus stop (or Tadasunomori-mae) Parking : There is a parking lot (Shimogamo Shrine grounds) Hours : Opning 6:30 – Closing 16:30 Entrance fee : free

Photos and reviews related to prayers for beauty

Kawai Shrine is located within the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine. A beautiful goddess is enshrined here, and it is said that those who pray there will become beautiful.

The experience of drawing a face on a hand-mirror-shaped ema (votive plaque) is popular. So, we decided to try it out ourselves.

We colored in the ema featuring drawn faces using colored pencils.

And after we finished making it, we wrote our wishes on the back and offered it at the shrine.

Many people were trying it out.

The ema painted by others were also colorful, and it was fun just looking at them.

After we finished, we drank a juice that is said to make you beautiful. It is made by soaking Karin (Chinese quince) in honey and dissolving the mixture in sacred water. It was sweet and very delicious.

Other Highlights

Tobe Shrine, located within the precincts of Kawai Shrine, is dedicated to Yatagarasu. It is a three-legged crow from Japanese mythology, said to guide people in the right direction.

It serves as a symbol of the Japanese national soccer team, and a soccer ball had been dedicated there.

Kawai Shrine is the place where Kamo no Chomei, an essayist of the late 12th century, spent his childhood.Within the shrine precincts, a reconstruction stands of the house where he spent his final years and wrote his masterpiece, Hojoki.

This work is famous for its opening passage, which likens life and the world to the flow of a river. Knowing that the work was written in this humble house makes its sense of impermanence resonate even more deeply.

(It has now been relocated to the forest north of the shrine.)

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