Furaidochikin Crossing: The Shrine Behind the House

There’s a famous set of red torii gates in Kyoto at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. I don’t think I’m going to make it to Kyoto this trip but I do have my own little Shinto shrine to go to here in Itoshima, Fukuoka. It’s right behind the residency and its called Matsusue Tenmangu! Here are the pics I took from the walk at 7am one morning.

I believe this is called the temizuya. It’s right after the first few gates in the first picture.

This stone basin of for cleansing your hands, feet, and mouth.

One of the many little buildings housing sacred objects.

A crazy wavy retaining wall next to some stairs I’d be climbing.

A tiny concrete stair dwelling crab akin to the forest crab. Did I tell you about forest crabs?

I believe this is a rope to pull a bell as part of the ritual of visiting the shrine.

I’m struggling through all of the terminology and processes of the Shinto shrine. I’m not sure if I’m correct on these things but you can visit the link to read more.

More stairs. Hate the electric pipe running up the side.

Was fascinated that the bottles were part of the architecture.

Midway. An important man. Can’t read Japanese, unfortunately.

Another cleansing station. Hate the green hose. Wanted to move it but decided not to touch anything.

A view from the midway point. These are the rice fields in front of the house I’m in.

Not sure what these are. Food storage containers?

Lots of little mini shrines all up the hill.

Tiny torii gate on a stone shrine behind a torii gate.

I had hoped that the climb up the many stairs would be a good hard workout but it really wasn’t bad. I was also expecting things to get more grand as I climbed. It’s a little anti-climatic. The best parts were in the middle. I caught a few cool things that I missed on the way down.

Heee. This one’s a little derpy. Love it.

I really liked the contrast of textures here. Maybe only something an artist would appreciate? An enjoyable morning adventure right behind the house! This is one of the places I can take you on a morning walk with me. I’ll start doing those soon.

Love, Furaidochikin

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