If Only to Escape the Hustle and Heat
Among the tens of thousands of Shinto shrines in Japan, from large to small, world-famous to virtually unknown, I have a personal favorite. It’s right here in the nation’s teeming capital, Tokyo. I like to visit it on a hot summer’s day, not so much to pray as to catch a breath of freshened air, enjoy the symphony of cicadas, and let my thoughts drift where they may.
Happily Not Too Popular
Although a well-known urban fane, Yoyogi Hachimangu Shrine is nonetheless mostly off the tourist radar, with no potential for the body crush experience of a place like Asakusa Shrine. Nor does it offer any of the glitter of Nikko’s Toshougu, or spectacle of its grandparent in Kamakura, Tsuruoka Hachimangu. In fact, it’s a modest shrine, situated on a hillside in Shibuya ward, with a few paved pathways under a tall canopy of trees. And while it should be respected as a place of prayer for the devoted, it also pays tribute history and poetry.
Where Artillery Meets Allegory
Established in the year 1212 by a fugitive Minamoto samurai, this shrine does not eschew its militaristic roots, nor the long association of Shinto with Japan’s martial history. There is a monument here to Japanese soldiers who fell during the Russo-Japan war of 1904-5, with relics of that conflict prominently displayed. Yet practically side by side with this memorial is a cameo of the literary publisher and poet Uchida Aro, with a bronze plaque telling of his life. This short bio begins with an allusive rhyme recalling the song of the cuckoo, and literary rivalries fought not with swords or guns, but verse.
A Time Before Japan was Japan
There are some very large beech and camphor trees on the grounds, and right in their midst is a reproduction of a Jomon period dwelling; a sunken thatched roof house built to commemorate the discovery of a settlement of the island’s primordial people on this very spot. It’s a truly wonderful replica from the life of a culture vanished millennia ago, and well worth a visit just for the chance to do a little time travel. Across from the main shrine is a small annex containing many of the stone artifacts dug up during the archeological excavations.
In the second or third weekend of September is the grand summer festival at Yoyogi Hachimangu. If you have the chance to go, be sure to attend in your yukata, and join in the traditional bon-odori dancing.
