Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu Shrine, Kyoto
Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu Shrine is on Mount Otoko at Yawata-shi, about 20 minutes by train southwest of Kyoto. In The Jeweled Chaplet chapter of The Tale of Genji, Lady Tamakazura is sent to the shrine to pray for assistance.
The main shrine and inner courtyard of the Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine.
Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu was the tutelary shrine of the Minamoto (Genji) clan, to which Genji belonged. Hachiman was the Shinto god of war and god of archery.
Shrine maiden at Iwashimizu Hachimangu.
The author of The Confessions of Lady Nijo also belonged to the Minamoto clan. In 1273, she visited the shrine to pray for her father's soul, and in 1291 - by then a nun - she visited again and ran into her former lover, Retired Emperor Go-Fukakusa.
Stone lanterns line the approach to the tutelary shrine of the Minamoto (Genji) clan.
The popular shrine is particularly atmospheric when deserted.
A stone lantern in the courtyard of Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine.
Two arrows stand beside this path to the shrine of the God of War.
