A Shrine for Romance

One of the most unusual Japanese customs is the cult of enmusubi 「縁結び」: en means "destiny" and musubi means "to tie together", so enmusubi can be loosely translated as... "matchmaking".

I found such shrines in Kyoto, one of them right next to the Kiyomizu-dera (the Jishu Shrine) and another inside the Yasaka Shrine. Dedicated to Okuninushi-no-Mikoto, the kami of love, marriage and matchmaking, these shrines can be recognized easily, because the statue of the kami with the "Hare of Inaba" are placed on the right of the torii.

Many young people are coming here, alone ar in couples, to pray, to buy some good luck charms or only just to take a picture...