The Gion-san from Kamakura

About 600 meters south-east of Kamakura Station, you can visit one of the oldest shrines from Kamakura - even older than Tsurugaoka Hachimangu - established in 1082 by Yoshimitsu Minamoto, the great-great grandfather of Yoritomo Minamoto, the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate.

Locally known as the shrine to prevent sickness, this little shrine was established as a sub-shrine of the famous Gion-sha from Kyoto and it was named Kamakura Gion-sha.
But after the Meiji Restoration from 1868, the Gion-sha from Kyoto became the Yasaka Shrine, so the Gion-sha from Kamakura was also renamed, becoming the Yakumo Shrine. But people in the neighborhood are still calling it “Gion-san” and the hill behind the shrine is still called “Gion-yama", Mount Gion…

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Yakumo Shrine, Kamakura

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