Daikoku Shrine in Komagome

Across the street from Komagome Station, there is a shrine.

It's a shrine for one of the Seven Lucky Gods, a form of Daikokuken. See the mallet emblem on the metal gate? 

The shrine is 大國神社, Daikoku Jinja. While everything looks rather new, the establishment of this shrine dates back to 1783.

Daikokuken is one of those gods that people pray to for good luck and wealth. I'm sure getting fortunes here is popular. The bad luck fortunes are left at the shrine.

A natural stone chozubachi. There is something appealing in this mix of streamlined modern and natural elements.

Of course there are the guarding komainu.

One of the bonuses of going to Daikoku Shrine at this time of year is the sakura.

The color of the blue sky when viewed through sakura is amazing.

Daikoku Jinja is a Shinto shrine for personal worship of one form of Daikokuten. That is the god Okuninushi-no-Mikoto, a descendant of the god Susanoo. 

The Komagome Bridge is next to the shrine. It spans the rail road tracks below.

The bridge has a couple interesting details like the metal work flowers for fencing, with Mt Fuji above them.

Another view of Komagome Bashi.

Gold under Blue at Kishimojin

Another beautiful day. The day after Todoroki I was planning on doing something in the evening. So I didn't go far from where I was staying in Ikebukuro. 

I did take the Fukutoshin Line, one stop to Zoshigaya. It's a handy train to take instead of the Yamanote Line to some places.

I was thinking about ginkgo trees. So I visited Kishimojin Temple. 

I wrote about Kishimojin Temple here  http://blukats.blogspot.com/2019/05/kishimojin-temple-in-zoshigaya.html. So I'm just sharing a few detail photos I took.

 Along with that gold under the blue sky. 

I did find 鬼子母神像, Daikokuten's shrine, this time. Daikokuten is one of the Seven Lucky Gods. It's right next to the Owl Bench. Since it was open I took a peek inside. Daikokuten is known as the God of Great Darkness and yes his statue was black.

It is not part of the candy store. Kami-kawaguchiya was open and the owner, Uchiyama-san was there. She is very nice and speaks very good English. I may have ended up in this guy's video btw. 

The chocolate 500 yen coin I bought from her. I couldn't resist getting something. 

As for the ginkgo tree I wanted to see, it was this one. 

The huge tree that resides at the temple. This time it was golden with autumn color. It is thought to be around 700 years old.

 I walked through areas that I visited last time. I didn't have a photo of the Jizo statues.

The vermilion Shinto torii were beautiful against the gold leaves. 

And just a look back at Kishimojin and the many people who go there.

Those Trees

Thankfully the weather was beautiful following that tumultuous rainy day. I decided to revisit a place I had not planned on going to again. Because something was happening there. So I said hello again to the Seven Lucky Gods at Kuro Nakazato Shrine.

And I thanked them for the beautiful weather and these glorious trees. 

I'm glad these photos turned out decently to share a bit of the wonderful autumn colors. 

Which I found with my favorite pair of komainu at Hiratsuka-jinja Shrine.

Since I've posted information about Hiratsuka-jinja before, I will just share photos of a few details and these trees.