Shiramine Shrine Audio Guide

Shiramine Jingu: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Shiramine Jingu

   Welcome to Shiramine Jingu, written 白峯神宮 in Japanese. It sits in Kamigyo Ward in Kyoto, on Imadegawa Avenue, just northwest of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. You will find it on the east side of the crossing where Horikawa Avenue meets Imadegawa Avenue. It is a modest shrine on a busy city road, and it holds two very different stories. The first is solemn. Two emperors are enshrined here, Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Junnin. Both were sent into exile and both died far from the capital. The second story is full of energy. The ground was once the home of the Asukai family, who were the leading masters of kemari, the ancient court ball game. Because of that, the shrine has become a place of prayer for footballers, volleyball players and sports fans all over Japan. Over the next few minutes we will move from a twelfth-century rebellion to a nineteenth-century imperial decision, and then to the balls piled up beside the shrine office today. Let's start with the emperors.

2. 02

   Shiramine Jingu and the Exiled Emperors

   Our story begins with Retired Emperor Sutoku. He lost the Hogen Rebellion and was exiled to the province of Sanuki, in what is now Kagawa Prefecture. There he died on the twenty-sixth of August in 1164. Disasters followed one after another in the years afterward, and people came to blame the restless spirit of the dead emperor. The response was to calm that spirit. Beside his burial place, the Shiramine Mausoleum in present-day Sakaide, a former palace hall from the provincial capital was moved and rebuilt as a memorial hall. The court also ordered that memorial services be held there by the temple of Shiramine-ji. The second emperor honored here is Junnin, who lived from 733 to 765. He was exiled after the rebellion of Fujiwara no Nakamaro, and his spirit was brought here from his mausoleum on Awaji Island and enshrined alongside Sutoku in 1873. Two emperors from very different centuries, joined by the same fate of dying in exile, now share one shrine in the capital.

3. 03

   Shiramine Jingu: A Shrine Born in a Time of Crisis

   Fast-forward to the final years of the shogunate, a time of conflict at home and pressure from foreign powers. Emperor Komei ordered the shogunate to bring Sutoku's spirit from its distant resting place back to Kyoto. Before it could be done, Komei died. His son, Emperor Meiji, took up that wish. He came to the throne on the ninth of January in 1867. On the eighteenth of August in 1868, he proclaimed the founding of the shrine on the former site of the Asukai family residence. He sent an imperial envoy to Sutoku's mausoleum, and on the anniversary of the old emperor's death, the twenty-sixth of August, the envoy read the imperial edict aloud. The next day, Meiji's own enthronement took place. On the sixth of September that year, Sutoku's spirit was brought from Sanuki to Kyoto. Historians and commentators read this as an act of calming a troubled spirit in order to steady a troubled country. The ground beneath the shrine was the Asukai family's, and that detail leads us to the other half of this place.

4. 04

   Shiramine Jingu, Kemari and the Spirit of Sport

   Now look for the small shrine in the grounds called Jinushi-sha, the shrine of the local landholding deity. Its central deity is Seidai Myojin, the guardian of kemari. The Asukai family were the foremost masters of kemari and of waka poetry. They honored this deity inside their residence for generations, and when the shrine was founded, the deity stayed on as the guardian of the land. Kemari is the ancient court ball game, a little like football, and in the same spirit today this deity is prayed to for ball games and sports in general. In front of the shrine buildings you can see balls dedicated by members of national football and volleyball teams and by professional players. Athletes, children on sports teams and fans come to pray before big matches or at the start of a season. Every April, at the spring festival, and every July, at the Seidai Myojin festival, members of the Kemari Preservation Society perform kemari here as an offering. If you want a souvenir, the sports amulets are well known, including a lucky charm called the Kanauwa. Seidai Myojin is also known as a deity of stars, and on the seventh of July, during Tanabata, a Komachi dance is offered here with prayers for progress in the arts and learning.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you leave, take a slow walk around the edges of the grounds, because some of the best details are quiet ones. In the southeast part of the precinct stands an ogatama tree, a kind of magnolia. It is old enough to date from the days of the Asukai residence, it is among the largest of its kind in the temple-filled city of Kyoto, and it is a designated natural monument of the city. In early spring it opens with a faint fragrance. There are also two wells to find, the Asukai well and the Senryu well. Beside the Senryu well stands the small Senryu-sha shrine. According to its tradition, on the twenty-third of November in 1955, during a fire-offering ritual in the main hall, three dragon deities appeared in the flames. Water from the Senryu well is said to cut off bad ties and bring protection from misfortune. You may also notice a kemari court, a monument to the game, and the ceremonial cherry and mandarin orange trees that echo the layout of the Imperial Palace. See how many layers you can spot in one small shrine: exile, memory, poetry, ball games and trees.