Kenkun Shrine Audio Guide

Kenkun Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Kenkun Shrine

   Welcome to Kenkun Shrine, tucked onto the slopes of Mount Funaoka in the Murasakino neighborhood of Kita-ku, in northern Kyoto. Its formal name is Takeisao Shrine, though almost everyone knows it as Kenkun-jinja. It is a small mountain rather than a grand peak, which makes the climb a short hike that lets you feel removed from the city without leaving you out of breath. The shrine is dedicated to one of the most famous and most feared figures in Japanese history: the sixteenth century warlord Oda Nobunaga. His son, Oda Nobutada, is enshrined here as a secondary deity. Nobunaga fought to unify a country torn apart by civil war, and this hill is where Kyoto remembers him. Over the next few minutes, we will look at how a shrine to a warlord came to sit on this hill, what the mountain meant long before Nobunaga, what the buildings and the great torii gate tell you, and how the shrine comes alive each autumn with festivals. Take your time on the path. The view back over the city is part of the story.

2. 02

   A Warlord Becomes a Kami

   Oda Nobunaga lived from 1534 to 1582, in the Sengoku period, the era of the Warring States. He set out to bring the country under a single banner, and he is remembered as a driving force in ending that age of endless war. His life ended in 1582 in the Honnō-ji Incident, in Kyoto itself. The shrine came nearly three centuries later. In 1869, the second year of the Meiji era, an imperial decree honored Nobunaga as a figure of national unification, and that order created the shrine. The new government was restoring imperial authority, and it looked back to the men who had helped steady the realm. So the man who once marched on the capital became, in the Meiji age, a kami who protected the nation. The shrine itself was not always on this hill. It was relocated from Tokyo to Mount Funaoka in September 1880. At first it stood at the foot of the mountain, and from 1910 it has stood on the higher ground where you find it today. The hill carries a pointed historical echo, too. Every October, the shrine remembers the day in 1568 when Nobunaga first entered Kyoto.

3. 03

   A Mountain Older Than the Capital

   Long before anyone thought of a shrine to Nobunaga, Mount Funaoka had a reputation of its own. One theory holds that people worshiped it as a sacred mountain even before Kyoto was founded as the capital, partly because a rock outcrop stands near the summit. In Chinese geomancy, the layout that guided the planning of the ancient capital, four guardian deities protect Kyoto. This hill is said to be the domain of Genbu, the tortoise guardian of the north. That is why the shrine is counted as one of the four shrines that guard Kyoto in the four cardinal directions, and it protects the city from the north. The hill also has a literary life. In the ancient capital it was regarded as a burial ground, and the medieval writer Yoshida Kenkō mentions it in that connection in his Tsurezuregusa. It also appears in chapter 231 of Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, as the first hill that comes to mind for a Kyoto aristocrat. So as you climb, you are walking on a slope that courtiers and essayists were naming a thousand years ago.

4. 04

   Gate, Hall and View

   Start with the great torii gate. It is the largest unpainted torii gate in Kyoto Prefecture, so instead of the bright vermilion you may expect, you see plain, natural material. It sets a quiet, sober tone for the climb. The main sanctuary, the honden, is a classic example of the nagare-zukuri style of shrine architecture. Its signature feature is a sloping roof that hangs longer over the front of the building, forming a graceful sweep over the approach. The honden dates to 1880, its roof is covered in traditional cypress thatch, and it is classified as a Tangible Cultural Property. Then turn around. The grounds sit on high ground and offer a particularly good view of Mount Daimonji and Mount Hiei, with the city of Kyoto spread out beneath you. This view is a large part of why people come. Stone paths and stairs follow the natural slope of the mountain, so the walk upward feels like a gradual transition from the streets below to the sacred space at the top.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   If you can plan your visit around the calendar, the shrine rewards you. Each year on October 19, the Funaoka Matsuri commemorates the day in 1568 when Nobunaga first entered Kyoto. Young boys dressed in samurai armor portray his army marching in to take control of the government. At the shrine's grand festival, a dance is performed in the Worship Hall to a famous verse: a human life of 50 years is nothing against the age of the world, life is but a fleeting dream, and is there anything that lasts forever? It is a striking thought to carry with you at the shrine of a man who tried to reshape a whole country. As you walk back down, look again at the plain torii, the long sweep of the roof, and the line of Mount Daimonji and Mount Hiei on the horizon. Ask yourself which of them has seen the most of Kyoto's history, and which one is still the quietest.