Author of the Hiro Hattori (Shinobi) mysteries
Later this week, I’ll share a recent hike I took along a preserved section of the Tokaidō–one of the major travel roads of 17th century Japan–but the day began with a walk along a different, and more modern, path along the shore of Ashinoko (Lake Ashi), which I’m sharing here today
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Today we continue the virtual tour of Hakone Shrine with a trip to the water gate. In the Shintō faith, torii (the red-orange gate in the images) mark the boundary between the secular and the sacred – though on occasion, it often seems that the areas on both sides of the torii are equally sacred. The water gate at Hakone Shrine is one of those places.
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Last week, I started a virtual tour of Hakone Jinja (Shrine), one of my favorite Shintō shrines in Japan – and today, we continue that tour with a look at the shrine’s main courtyard and worship hall. In some ways, the layout of Shintō shrines varies more than Buddhist temple architecture, in part because of the way Shintō attempts to integrate the shrine with the natural landscape. Hakone Jinja is no exception. The main courtyard, where the worship hall stands, sits uphill from the entrance. Because of the distance, and the fact that several paths lead up to the worship hall
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Hakone Jinja (Hakone Shrine) sits on the shore of Lake Ashi (Ashinoko) in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture – about an hour’s journey south of Tokyo. Its giant lakeside torii makes it among the most picturesque Shintō shrines, as well as an important historical, tourist, and religious site.
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