Nonomiya Shrine Audio Guide

Nonomiya Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Nonomiya Shrine

   Welcome to Nonomiya Shrine, known in Japanese as 野宮神社. You are in Sagano, in Ukyo Ward on the western side of Kyoto, in the Arashiyama district. The shrine sits right beside the famous bamboo forest and is a natural starting point for a stroll around Sagano. This is a small shrine with an unusually big story. It enshrines Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess, and its roots lie in a remarkable custom of the Heian period. Young women of the imperial family, chosen to serve at the great shrine of Ise, came here to purify themselves before their journey. Over the next few minutes we will follow that story. We will meet the princesses who lived here, look at a gate made of unpeeled tree trunks, and find out why visitors still stop to stroke a certain dark stone. Take your time, because the details here reward slow looking.

2. 02

   Nonomiya Shrine and the Princesses of Ise

   To understand Nonomiya Shrine, start with a title: saiō. Whenever a new emperor took the throne, an unmarried princess of the imperial family was chosen by divination to serve as his stand-in at the Ise Shrine, in the place of the emperor himself. Most of these girls were around 12 or 13 years old. The youngest was just two, and the oldest was 28. Before she could leave for Ise, she had to purify body and mind, avoiding certain foods and drink. She spent one year in a purification hall within the imperial palace. Then she spent a second year in a Nonomiya, a field shrine, built in a pure, quiet corner of Sagano. Only after that did she set out for the Saiku, the saiō's residence in what is now Mie Prefecture, to take up her sacred duties at Ise. The Nonomiya did not always stand in the same place. Its location changed with each princess. The tradition says that from the time of Princess Hitoko, a daughter of Emperor Saga, the Nonomiya was built on the ground where this shrine now stands. A Kyoto tourism record dates the origin to around the year 800, early in the Heian period.

3. 03

   The Black Wood Gate of Nonomiya Shrine

   Now look at the gate. The torii at Nonomiya Shrine is called a kuroki torii, a black wood gate, and it is made from tree trunks with the bark left on. Local descriptions say it is oak, and that this simple, almost primitive form is among the oldest styles of torii. Beside it runs a low woven fence called a koshibagaki. Together they carry a faint echo of the Heian atmosphere. Tradition holds that the gate was raised to protect the saiō who served Amaterasu, so that no evil spirit could take hold of her during her time of purification. There is something touching in that idea. A young girl, far from the life she had known, was sheltered by a gate of raw wood. The shrine's later fortunes were rougher. The saiō system came to an end in the Nanbokucho period, during the reign of Emperor Go-Daigo, and the shrine carried on as a place of worship for Amaterasu. It declined during repeated wars, but Emperor Gonara and Emperor Nakamikado issued imperial edicts placing it under the care of the Daikakuji temple, and imperial reverence helped preserve it down to our own day.

4. 04

   Literature, Moss and Wishes at Nonomiya Shrine

   This quiet corner has a literary pedigree. It is traditionally regarded as the setting of the Sakaki chapter of The Tale of Genji, and it is the subject of the Noh play Nonomiya. Notice the information boards around the grounds, and some of the amulets, which borrow motifs from those stories. The garden is a pleasure in itself. It uses moss to evoke Arashiyama, the mountain across the valley, and the carpet moss here has its own name. Maples, camellias, rhododendrons and Japanese andromeda color the grounds through the seasons. The tall bamboo growing nearby is known as Nonomiya bamboo, and in old times it was used in the Daijosai, the great enthronement ceremony. Near the entrance, a maple was planted to mark a visit by Prince Naruhito, who is now the emperor, and beside it stands the shrine's name stone, written by the Meiji-era Kyoto calligrapher Yamada Einen. Then there are the wishes. The small shrine of Daikokuten here is dedicated to love and good relationships. Beside it sits the Okame-ishi, the tortoise stone. Stroke it, the saying goes, and your wish will be granted within a year. So many hands have done so that the stone gleams a deep, glossy black. The shrine is also honored for matchmaking, for children and for safe childbirth.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Nonomiya Shrine

   As you leave Nonomiya Shrine, remember that it is more than a pretty stop beside the bamboo path. It is a place where a custom lasting many centuries is still remembered. Every October, at the shrine's annual festival, local parishioners recreate the saiō's procession as the Saiku Gyoretsu, a tradition they have kept up since 1998. Before you step onto the bamboo lane, look back once at the black wood gate and the woven fence. Imagine the young princess who lived behind them for a year, waiting to set out for Ise. Then, as you wander on through Sagano, ask yourself what else here might connect to the Heian court. The stone, the gate and the moss all point toward that world. How many more traces of it can you find on the road ahead?