#temizusha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pix4japan · 1 year

Photo

Purification Fountain before Visiting Shrine (Samukawa, Kanagawa Pref., Japan)

Almost every Shinto Shrine has a “temizuya” (手水舎), which is a small roofed pavilion with a fountain of water where visitors wash their hands and rinse their mouths to purify oneself before entering the holy space of the shrine grounds.

At Samukawa Shrine, however, they use the reading of “temizusha” for 手水舎 instead of temizuya. This shot shows how large the pavilion is, which reflects the need to accommodate the nearly 2 million visitors to the shrine every year.

During my visit to Samukawa Shrine, I saw vehicle license plates from all over the Tokyo Metropolitan area including Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka Prefectures! Clearly this shrine is well known far beyond the borders of the local farming and industrial community surrounding the shrine.

The shrine is in a class of its own in that it is one of the few major shrines in Japan that has been visited by a few members of the imperial family where they have planted commemorative trees during their visit.

Each tree is well looked after and placards are easily visible next to pathways where inscriptions state which member of the imperial family visited the shrine, when the tree was planted, and a short message from said family member.

Fujifilm X100V (23 mm) with 5% diffusion filter ISO 3200 for 1/10 sec. at ƒ/11 Vilvia/Vivid film simulation

#神社写真 #御正月 #初詣 #神奈川県 #寒川町 #手水舎 #寒川神社 #pix4japan #Fujifilm X100V #Japan #Kanagawa Prefecture #Samukawa Shrine #shrine #travel photography #shrine photography

26 notes · View notes

jackiewepps · 2 years

Text

Jackie in Japan - Shrine Visit

I never did visit the shrine when I went to the festival, and I really feel like I should have. On top of that, my academic performance hasn't been too great compared to my classmates, so with something to wish for, why not go?

I don't usually bring anime references up in these posts, but I will make an exception today. In Noragami, you will meet a God named Tenjin, the one Tomone leaves Yato for. He is the shinto God of academics and has a few shrines around the country. One of them is in Dazaifu in Fukuoka prefecture. It's called Dazaifu Tenman-guu. If you are not too confused on where you want to go, you can get there in a little over an hour from where I live. (I spent around 30 minutes or so at Tenjin station, wondering which train to take to get to Dazaifu.)

Anyway, I made it to Dazaifu station and from there I just had to follow the crowd to the shrine, but the path was rather simple. From the station, turn right, then walk around 50 m, then turn left and walk 100 m or so, and then turn right and you will see the first torii straight ahead.

The torii is a gate that indicates that you are entering the land of the gods. According to the video I saw, you are supposed to bow before entering and you are not supposed to go through the middle of the gate, as that is the path of the gods. I didn't do either.

After entering the first torii there was a path with shops on either side where you could buy all kinds of foods and souvenirs. It reminded me a little of the area around Kiyomizudera (Kiyomizu temple) in Kyoto, except it wasn't nearly as crowded or as big.

When the street of shops ends, there is a spot where the path turns. There's a statue of a lying bull who people were lining up to touch. If I have understood it correctly, apparently it should bring good luck to touch it, so of course I had to do that. Also because I'm pretty sure that's only at this shrine, or at least I haven't seen it at any other shrine.

Then I followed the line of umbrellas with Japanese people hiding underneath (it was raining and I have no hands for an umbrella, so I didn't carry one). We crossed three bridges that connected two islands in a pond. The line led past the temizusha where you are supposed to rinse your hands and mouth to be "clean" when entering the shrine. I didn't do it because I had already been waiting in line for 10 minutes and with no one to hold my place, I would have to go all the way back to the end and wait for another 10 minutes in the rain. I was not about to, and some of the other people who came alone didn't do it either. But I felt bad for not doing it.

I entered the shrine grounds and walked with the crown to the main building. I threw in my 5-yen coin for good luck (go-en can apparently also mean good luck if written with diferent kanji) and then prayed. The way you do it at shinto shrines is that you throw in the coin, bow twice, clap loudly twice and pray, then bow again and leave. You know what I forgot? In the midst of reminding myself that I'm supposed to clap loudly and make noise, I forgot to pray!

I went and drew myself a fortune telling. They need 100 yen for that. I don't know what it says yet, but it's readable and they bothered to put furigana on the kanji, so I will get to translate it later. Normally, you can tie it on a string or something to make it come true. I did that once in Kyoto, but as I said, I took my fortune home with me today. Then I hurriedly left before I made any more mistakes. I bought a fan on the way out, making the cost of my shrine visit go from 105 yen to 1205 yen, not including transportation.

My biggest accomplishments: 1. I successfully found my way from my home station to Tenjin, and all the way to the Nishitetsu line. 2. my Japanese was praised. Apparently some people think it's good enough that I could be perminently living in Japan. 3. I found my way back from Dazaifu and all the way home all on my own with no problem except I got on the wrong platform at the first station I needed to change trains at. So there is a little to be proud of at least.

Have you ever visited a shinto shrine? is there one you would like to visit? Did you make any mistakes or are there any mistakes you really don't want to make?

#jackie in japan #japan #shrines #dazaifu tenma-gu #tenjin #noragami

6 notes · View notes