Imamiya Shrine Audio Guide

Imamiya Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Imamiya Shrine

   Welcome to Imamiya Shrine, known in Japanese as 今宮神社, in the Murasakino district of Kyoto's Kita Ward. It is a place with two reputations that seem to pull in opposite directions. Its origins lie in a medieval fight against plague, and it is also nicknamed the Jewel Palanquin Shrine, because it is tied to one of the great rags-to-riches stories in Japanese history. In the Heian period, more than a thousand years ago, a shrine here was already tied to the work of calming epidemics. Over the next few minutes you will meet the deities enshrined here, follow the story of two outbreaks and two sacred processions, and then hear about the greengrocer's daughter who rose to the heart of the shogun's household. Along the way you will also meet a festival that Kyoto counts among its three most unusual. The shrine's parishioner area stretches across the southeastern part of Kita Ward and the western part of Kamigyo Ward, with the old textile district of Nishijin at its center. So this is very much a neighborhood shrine, and it is still part of daily life for the people around it.

2. 02

   Imamiya Shrine and the Plague of 994

   Start with the oldest layer of the story. Tradition holds that before the capital moved to Heian-kyo in 794, a small shrine on this ground already honored a deity of epidemics, the storm god Susanoo. That little shrine survives today as an auxiliary shrine within Imamiya Shrine, called Yakujinja, the Epidemic Deity Shrine. Then came the year 994. A great plague swept the capital, and Kyoto answered the way it often did, with a goryoe, a ritual meant to soothe angry spirits blamed for disease. The court built two portable shrines and moved the epidemic deity into them. They were carried to the hill called Funaokayama and left there, music was offered, and the calamity was then drawn into offerings and sent floating away toward the inlet of Naniwa. This ritual, the Murasakino Goryoe, is regarded as the beginning of the Imamiya Festival. It happened again in 1001, when plague returned. This time the court moved the deity down from Funaokayama and built a proper sanctuary, sacred fence and portable shrine on the old site, and named it Imamiya-sha. That is the moment the shrine as an institution is said to begin. Three deities are enshrined here: Onamuchi no Mikoto, Kotoshironushi no Mikoto and Kushinadahime no Mikoto.

3. 03

   Imamiya Shrine and the Jewel Palanquin

   Now to the nickname. The word koshi means palanquin, the kind of litter that carried nobles, and tama means jewel. To rise in life through marriage or good fortune is to ride in a jewel palanquin, and this shrine has made that phrase its own. The story belongs to Keishoin. She was the daughter of a greengrocer in Nishijin, the weaving quarter just nearby. She became a concubine of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, and the mother of the fifth shogun, Tsunayoshi. Her climb was so astonishing that people spoke of it as a jewel palanquin, and some call it Japan's Cinderella story. Imamiya Shrine was her local guardian shrine. Keishoin worked to restore Kyoto's run-down shrines and temples, and the shrine honors her with a bust relief. Today visitors come to pray for good matches and good fortune, and the shrine is still known as the place to ask for a happy turn in life.

4. 04

   Festivals and Stones at Imamiya Shrine

   Imamiya Shrine is at its liveliest in spring. On the second Sunday of April comes the Yasurai Festival, counted among Kyoto's three unusual festivals. Its roots go back to 994, when silk umbrellas were decorated and music and song were used to quiet the plague. In early May the Imamiya Festival follows. On the fifth, the deities are carried out in a procession, and on the twelfth they return. Expect lines of sword halberds, the dance of eight maidens and the heaving of portable shrines, rites that have continued since the Heian period. On quieter days, look for the oracle stone known as Aho-kashikoi-san, which means the Fool-Wise One. Visitors stroke it while making a wish. If it feels lighter than expected, the wish is said to come true. A carved stone with four Buddha faces, another famous treasure of the shrine, is now kept on deposit at the Kyoto National Museum. The present buildings date from 1902. A kindergarten was opened within the precinct in 1930, run under the motto of making the shrine grove a garden for small children.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander, keep the two threads in mind: a shrine born from fear of disease and a shrine now known for hope and good fortune. It can be a surprisingly calm place in the middle of the city, where you can face the deities and quietly take stock of your own life. Next door to the west lies Imamiya Children's Park, with a cherry-tree lane about 150 meters long, tended and cleaned by local residents. If you come in spring, you could combine blossoms with festival season. And if the oracle stone catches your eye, try the old test: stroke it, and see whether it feels lighter than you expected.