Revisiting Gojoten and Hanazono Shrines

It was another rainy day when I first visited these shrines in Ueno Park.

And it was a rainy day when I was here in July.

I may have taken photos of some of the same things.

But komainu are always interesting because of the variations that can be found. And some can even be thought of as cute.

I wasn't going to be here long, but I just wanted to walk through the shrines on my way back to Ueno Station.

I did stop at Gojoten Shrine. It is dedicated to the scholar Sugawara no Michizaneto. People come here to pray for help in learning.

A Honden on the grounds.

Looking back at Gojoten Shrine.

Hanazono Shrine, dedicated to the Shinto kami Inari. I had stopped here last time, and did so this time.

I want to say something. While I was waiting, a family that appeared to be tourists, played around with the bell rope and posed taking selfies. It's really not appropriate since these are places where people worship. Taking photos as part of wanting to understand Shinto and the shrines is one thing. It's another if someone is misusing the shrine solely to get a photo of themselves. I saw this behavior in other places. Maybe because it was summer there were more tourists so I saw more of this on this trip than I had seen before.

Hanazono Shrine's kitsune.

Seeing one with a kit is always nice.

Last time I came down through these torii. This time I went up.

Looking back.

More komainu, a little worn.

Out through the vermilion torii and back to the station. There was one more place I wanted to go to on this day.

My previous post about these shrines is here http://blukats.blogspot.com/2018/05/gojoten-and-hanazono-shrines-in-ueno.html