Enhancing luck to succeed in love! Tokyo’s oldest shrine with over 1,000 years of history

Near Daimon station surrounded by a business district, there are various spots where you can feel calm such as ‘Zojoji Temple’ with the Tokyo Tower standing behind it and ‘Shiba Park’ with the beautiful scenery of each season. This time, we’re going to introduce one of the oldest shrines in Tokyo “Shiba Daijingu Shrine,” known to bring good luck and fortune in love, from among them.

Built in 1005, “Shiba Daijingu Shrine (芝大神宮)” enshrines the deities of Ise Grand Shrine (伊勢神宮), Amaterasu Oomikami (天照大神) and Toyouke no Oomikami (豊受大御神), and is familiar to many people as ‘Ise in Kanto region’ over time. In addition, it was worshipped by those who had a great influence on the history of Japanese such as Minamoto no Yoritomo who established the Kamakura shogunate and donated a site to this shrine, generals of the Edo Shogunate including Ieyasu Tokugawa protected it importantly and so on. During the Edo period, it seemed that its precinct and the front of Torii were filled with teahouses, small theatres to show up and something like that and bustling with many people. We can know how it was back then is through Ukiyo-e (woodblock print) painted by Japan’s presentative Ukiyo-e artists Hiroshige Utagawa and one of Kabuki’s program ‘Megumi no Kenka (め組の喧嘩, The Fight of the Megumi Fire Brigade).’

Moreover, people believe that they attract good fortune in love when visiting this shrine. That’s because ‘Chigibako (千木筥), a charm that helping women find a great partner in love by putting it in a chest, was sold at ‘Shoga Festival’ (生姜市, ginger festival) of this shrine which has been held every year since the Edo period. Still now, it is popular as a charm of love that we can get only here. Let’s try adorable love paper fortunes in the shape of a carp or cherry blossom!