Jan 15, 2014 - 1 min read

Kyoto Kawai Jinja Shrine

Pray for your beauty by way of a mirror-shaped tablet

By Tomoko Kamishima

Community writer

Huge numbers of tablets are dedicated to God

Kawai-jinja Shrine is near the south gate of Tadasu-no-mori Forest at the entrance of Shimogamo Jinja Shrine. Here, we can expect blessings from the shrine's deity for an easy delivery, children’s healthy growth, matchmaking, and so on. Recently, the gods here read (and answer) women’s supplications for their beauty that are made using cute mirror-shaped tablets called kagami ema. Of course I prayed very hard for my own skin! By the way, there is a tiny, mobile, thatched house in these precincts. It is the restoration of a house once lived in by Kamo no Chomei (1153?-1216) who wrote Hojo-ki.