I am not sure where I took a photo of these flowers. Maybe at the beginning of my walk on March 22nd, at a store along the way? All I know is they were very pretty and smelled lovely. I made a practice of smelling flowers during my trip. I thought the photo would be a nice way to start this blog post.
I do know I had a coffee and chocolate bagel from Boulangerie Asanoya. I had wondered how they would make their business safer. They had put plastic sheeting in front of all the different baked goods and also were individually wrapping many of them. As for the taste of the bagel, it was just as I expected. Coffee with an under taste of chocolate. It was a nice breakfast.
I had originally planned to go to a number of places during this trip. Along with seeing the Lalique exhibit. But museums were closed and I was concerned about traveling too far away. I was still not sure about my flight back to America. JAL was cancelling flights every day so I didn't know if I would need to deal with booking a new flight with another airline, and how to pay for that if it was really expensive. Or then having to arrange for a longer stay. It felt unsettled.
So I went for a walk in the neighborhood. I didn't have far to go to visit another shrine. Ikebukuro Mitake Shrine, 池袋御嶽神社.
Something special about going for walks during this time of year, all the flowers that bloom. Little violets finding a way to live in the cracks of old stone steps. How old? Mitake Shrine is thought to have been built around 1687.
After entering through the torii, to the right is a very nice chozuya. Seeing this made me realize something about Japan.
Really cute instructions on how to purify yourself using the chozubashi. It's read right to left by the way.
Next to the ablution pavilion is this family of owls. Because of course, this is Ikebukuro. Also, the shrine is guardian of the west exit of Ikebukuro Station. So here are some of the west exit owls.
Something to notice, behind this wooden sign next to the chozuya, is one of the komainu. I'm not sure why they have hidden it, but the sign board looks new so maybe it was placed there for an upcoming festival.
Another sign board with a history of the shrine.
The other komainu is out in the open and rather nice.
Along with one of the shrine stone toro.
Various omamori are available, along with owls.
You can also get items to create your own home Shinto shrine. And little foxes with prayers written on them. As to what the prayers are about, I will get to that.
There is a nice open walkway, sando, to the haiden.
There is a kagura to the side, along with framework for holding paper lanterns, chochin, I think. Or it is for wooden signs. Perhaps for a festival.
Speaking of chochin, there were new paper lanterns in front of the main shrine.
I'm not sure what kami is enshrined at Mitake Shrine. There are four gods mentioned but I am not sure of their correct names. Two are Yamato and one is listed as Emperor Jinmu, 神武天皇, first emperor of Japan. The god of food and god of thunder and sword are referenced on the shrine's website here http://mitakejinjya.sakura.ne.jp/. One focus of this shrine is for fire protection and disaster relief.
To the side, another family of owls. Why a family?
This relates to the Shinto shrine next to the haiden. The kitsune were impressive.
The Shinto shrine is Kosodate Inari Shrine, 子育稲荷神社.
Rather toothsome kitsune.
They guard the way through several crimson torii.
So why the owl families? Because this shrine is where people pray for safe childbirth, healthy children and to become pregnant.
It is a shrine for parenting. Inari is a god one prays to an increase of crops and fertility.
Here people leave little kitsune ema with prayers for protection.
Next to this was the shrine mikoshi, portable shrine.
One last look at the chozuya. As to what I realized, in Japanese culture, washing hands is something that has been done for centuries. It's part of the religion. So it makes sense that in Japan, it's not difficult to get people to wash their hands, to think about trying to purify oneself as a way of making it safer, to prevent infection from the virus. Which may be one reason the rate of infection in Japan was slower.
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