Local Shinto Shrine - Tokyo

Several months ago I put up some photos I'd taken at a local Shinto shrine in Kamakura. I like to take photos of smaller neighborhood shrines as a kind of slice of local Japanese life. This shrine is not as spiffy as the one in Kamakura but it has a charm that I like. This Shinto shrine is off Okubo Dori in Tokyo. When I'm visiting I often see people stopping here on their way to work.


One of the impressive komainu or lion dogs which guard the shrine.



Suzu or bells on top of the red and white poles in front of the shrine alert the gods.



Notice the concrete torii.



The folded papers hanging on the wires are called omikuji. Many of the people I saw stopping at the shrine bought these. Bad forturnes are folded and left behind at the shrine.







The purification temizuya where one performs a ritual of cleaning one's hands and mouth along with a prescribed number of bows and claps.



Small kitsune or fox guardian shrine.



More omikuji.