Ever since I planned my Tokyo trip this 2019, I was
aiming for April or early May. Within that period, I knew that the Nezu Shrine will
have their famous Azalea Festival (Tsutsuji Matsuri). Nezu shrine is one the
city's "most spectacular spring scenes". But then holiday shifted to later...
This Shinto shrine is located in the Bunkyō ward of Tokyo.
You can take the train and stop at Nezu, then walked about 700 meters towards
the shrine.
Established in 1705, it is one of the oldest places of
worship in the city; several of the buildings on the shrine grounds have been
designated as Important Cultural Property. It was built in the
Ishi-no-ma-zukuri style of Shinto architecture, following the Tōshō-gū shrine
in Nikkō.
Nezu shrine is one of the Tokyo Ten Shrines (Tokyo
Jissha).
According to the legend, the Nezu shrine was founded in
Sendagi, just north of the current location, in the 1st century by Yamato
Takeru (also known as Prince Ōsu), the son of Emperor Keikō. In 1705 the shrine
was relocated to Nezu by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646–1709), the fifth shōgun of
the Tokugawa dynasty, on the occasion of him choosing his successor, Tokugawa
Ienobu (1662–1712).
When Emperor Meiji moved his residence from the Kyoto
Imperial Palace to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in 1868-1869, he sent envoys to
the shrine to have it intercede with the gods on his behalf.
There is a multitude of torii (=translates to bird abode, I would just simply call it as Japanese Gate) surrounding Nezu Shrine. The two main entrances are marked by big red torii in the myōjin style, very common in Shinto architecture, characterized by curved upper lintels. A placque on top of them reads the name of the shrine. They are flanked by lanterns.
One of the most famous features of the shrine is the path of vermilion torii through the hillside left of the main hall. In the middle of the path there is a viewing platform over a pond of koi, overlooking the main shrine precincts. The subsidiary Otome Inari Shrine is located here.
The main building of Nezu shrine is a honden (=main hall) in the Ishi-no-ma-zukuri style, a complex Shinto shrine structure in which the haiden, or worship hall, the heiden, or offertory hall, and the honden, are all interconnected under the same roof.
The whole structure dates from 1706.
thank you for stopping by and viewing the post...
xxx
