Yasaka Shrine Audio Guide

Yasaka Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Yasaka Shrine

   Welcome to Yasaka Shrine, written 八坂神社 in Japanese, standing in the Gion district of Kyoto. Look down Shijo Avenue, one of the great east-west streets of the city, and follow it to its eastern end. That is where the shrine sits, like a full stop at the end of a very long sentence. Kyoto people have long called it Gion-san, or sometimes Yasaka-san, and the affection in those nicknames tells you a lot. This is not a distant monument. It is a neighbor. Its history reaches back to before the capital moved to Heian-kyo, and from early on it was trusted as the shrine that protected the city from epidemic disease. Over the next few stops we will look at how this place came to guard the eastern edge of the old capital, how a prayer against plague grew into the great Gion Festival, and how an unusual building has carried Heian-period ideas down to today. Along the way we will meet a gate with a surprising habit of moving, and a dramatic change of identity in the nineteenth century. Take a breath, take a slow step forward, and let us begin.

2. 02

   Yasaka Shrine and the Gion Faith

   The main deity of Yasaka Shrine is Susanoo-no-Mikoto. In older times he was also known as Gozu Tenno, and the Buddha Yakushi Nyorai was seen as the Buddhist form of the same protective presence. People came here to ask for relief from epidemic disease, and over centuries those countless prayers grew into what is called the Gion faith. That faith spread far beyond Kyoto. This shrine is regarded as the head shrine of about 2,300 shrines across Japan that are dedicated to Susanoo-no-Mikoto or are related to him. It is also counted among the Twenty-Two Shrines, a historic group of shrines honored by the court. The oldest document in the shrine's own archive describes the lands it held. It names a territory bounded by the Shirakawa hills to the east, the area north of Fifth Avenue to the south, the Kamo River to the west, and the area south of Third Avenue to the north. In that document the shrine appears under an older name, Kanshin-in. Imagine the whole eastern edge of the capital being watched over from here. The name you see on the gate today came later. In 1868, during the separation of Shinto and Buddhism, Kanshin-in was abolished as a temple and the Yakushi hall beside the main hall was demolished. The standing statue of Yakushi Nyorai and a statue of the Eleven-Faced Kannon were moved to the temple Dairen-ji, and the temple bell went to Daiun-in. The names Gion Kanshin-in and Gion Shrine gave way to Yasaka Shrine. In 1871 it was ranked a middle-grade imperial shrine, and in 1915 it was raised to the highest grade, a grand imperial shrine.

3. 03

   The Gion Festival Begins at Yasaka Shrine

   Every July, Kyoto's streets fill with towering festival floats, and the story starts right here. Yasaka Shrine is the organizer behind the Gion Festival, one of the three great festivals of Japan, and it began as a prayer, not a party. In the year 869, an epidemic swept the country. The response was a ritual of appeasing angry spirits, called goryo-e, held at Shinsen-en, a pleasure garden belonging to the imperial court at that time. Sixty-six pikes were raised, one for each of the 66 regions of the country then, to pray for the safety of the nation and the removal of calamity. Over time those pikes became decorated, grew larger, and eventually turned into the famous floats that glide through the city. The festival has continued for more than a thousand years, protected by townspeople through many hardships. The heart of the festival is three portable shrines. On the evening of July 17, they carry the shrine's deity out from Yasaka Shrine. For one week the deity rests at the festival resting place at Shijo Teramachi, then on July 24 returns to the shrine after a tour of the neighborhoods that support it. The festival runs for the whole month of July, and nearly every ritual in it is tied to either the portable shrine procession or the parade of floats.

4. 04

   A Rare Building and a Wandering Gate at Yasaka Shrine

   Now turn your attention to the architecture, because the main hall of Yasaka Shrine is unlike a typical shrine. The main hall and the worship hall are covered by one single great roof and built as one building. This arrangement took shape in the Heian period, and by the Kamakura period the structure was close to what you see today. That is why the hall is said to preserve a Heian-period style. It is designated a national treasure. Inside, the plan is also unusual. You can walk all the way around the innermost chamber where the deity resides, and the interior is divided into many separate spaces, each with its own meaning and function, from areas for ritual to the area serving as the worship hall. A map of the grounds dated 1331 is the oldest known plan of the shrine. It shows the main hall and a dance stage in the center. The surrounding corridor has since vanished, but the shape of that great roof is the same as today. The symbol of the shrine is the West Tower Gate, the oldest building on the grounds, built in 1497 and designated an important cultural property. Before the Taisho era, which began in 1912, it stood slightly farther to the southwest. Altogether the grounds hold one national treasure and 29 important cultural properties, including the stone torii gate.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander on, hold two pictures in your mind side by side. One is the quiet shrine of everyday life, where neighbors still stop in on their way along Shijo Avenue. The other is the July festival, when the deity travels out into the streets and the city turns into a moving procession. Try looking at that great roof once more and ask yourself where the hall of worship ends and the sanctuary begins. Then think about the Yakushi hall that once stood beside it, and about the statues and bell that were carried off to other temples when the shrine took the name you see today. If you return in July, you will find the shrine at the center of a month of rituals. If you come at another time, you can still imagine the portable shrines setting out on that evening of July 17, or the West Tower Gate standing a little farther southwest than it does now. There is always another corner of Yasaka Shrine waiting for your next visit.