Back to Kita Where I Find More Lucky Gods

I had not planned much for this trip, since I knew it would be hot and muggy and I only had a few days in Japan. But there was one place I wanted to visit, a place I went to my last trip. So I made it to Ikebukuro Station. You would think skies like this meant it would rain. But it didn't. And it was still very hot. 

I made my way to Kami-Nakazato Station. Last time I came here it was from a different station. But Kami-Nakazato was closer. And making walks shorter was a good thing. So I found myself walking down this steep curved road.

Where I was distracted by this short flight of stairs. A shrine maybe? Of course I wanted to check it out. The stairs lead to Kuro Nakazato Shrine.

This one was a rather simple place. Fairly new statues of the Seven Lucky Gods. 

And slightly older ones of two of the gods, Daikokuten and Ebisu. Daikokuten is the god of commerce and prosperity and Ebisu is the god of prosperity and wealth in business and abundance of food. So they do get paired together for worship. 

There were also a few markers, including a road construction monument dated Showa 15. It's because this shrine had been moved when they improved the winding difficult curved road that runs besides this shrine and when they worked on the train station.

Older stone lantern, a toro. The shape is some what simple but the openings alternate squares with circles. 

Towards the back of this little shrine were two more deities next to a large sculptural pile of rocks. 

The kami on the left is Marishi-ten, the three headed deity that samurai would worship. It is the same one as found at Gotokuji. This version of Marishi-ten is on top of a boar. I wrote a little more about Marishi-ten in my post about Gotokuji, here http://blukats.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-walk-to-gotokuji-temple.html.

The other figure is Fudo Myo-o, Buddhist god, "The immovable wisdom king". He usually looks very fierce, for his job is to scare people into accepting salvation. He has a devil subduing sword in one hand, called a kurikara. His other hand holds a rope to tie up demons. Behind him are flames, which in this case are a little unusual for the inverted heart shapes. The information I found online mentions a date on the pedestal that relates to 1735. Fudo Myo-is a kami of protection. These two together would be kami that samurai worshiped. I mention this here because this relates to the next place I found on this journey. A place that once was a castle.