Shimogamo Shrine – A World Heritage site from Japan

Shimogamo Shrine is the commonly known name of an imperative Shinto sanctuary in the Shimogamo locale of Kyoto city’s Sakyō ward. Its official name is Kamo-mioya-jinja. It is one of the most ancient Shinto shrines in Japan and is one of the seventeen Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which have been assigned by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The term Kamo-jinja in Japanese is a general reference to Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine, the customarily connected Kamo shrines of Kyoto; Shimogamo is the most ancient of the pair, being known to be 100 years more aged than Kamigamo, and dating to the sixth century, hundreds of years before Kyoto turned into the capital of Japan. The Kamo-jinja serve the capacity of shielding Kyoto from censure impacts.

The jinja name recognizes the Kamo group of kami or gods who are revered. The name additionally alludes to the ambit of shrine’s adjacent woods, which are remnants of the primitive backwoods of Tadasu no Mori. Moreover, the shrine name references the range’s initial occupants, the Kamo faction, a large portion of whom keep on living close to the shrine their progenitors generally served.

Shimogamo Shrine is devoted to the reverence of Tamayori-hime (the soul welcoming lady) and her dad, Kamo Taketsunomi . Tamayori-hime is the mother of Kamo Wakeikazuchi ( the thunder-divider of Kamo), who was sired by Honoikazuchi-no-mikoto (the God of Fire and Thunder). Kamigamo Shrine, the other of the two Kamo shrines of Kyoto, is devoted to Kamo Wakeikazuchi. These kami are differently connected with thunder.

History

The shrine turned into the object of Imperial support amid the early Heian period.Shimogamo, alongside the Kamigamo Shrine, was assigned as one of two boss Shinto shrines (ichinomiya) for the previous Yamashiro province.In 965, Emperor Murakamiordered that Imperial flag-bearers were sent to report essential occasions to Japan’s watchman kami, including Kamo-Tamayori-hime and Kamo-Taketsune. The author of Houjouki, Kamo no Choumei,　was the second child of one of the head clerics of the shrine, Kamo no Nagatsugu. From 1871 through 1946, Shimogamo was formally assigned one of the Kanpei-taisha, implying that it remained in the first rank of government bolstered shrin