It was such a coincidence that our plan to go to a mountain in Shiga fell and instead, we went to a shrine. I’ve always wanted to go to this shrine but I didn’t want to impose since I wouldn’t be driving, so imagine my surprise when my partner’s sister told me about this new plan.
This shrine in Shiga is famous for its karuta roots. Have you watched Chihayafuru? I got to know about karuta from this anime!
Omi Jingu is the name of this shrine. It’s bigger and spacious than what I’ve seen from the movie. Yes, Chihayafuru has animes, manga and live action movies. It even has a sequel that was aired during the time I came to this shrine.
This shrine is like the Koshien of Karuta in Japan, which means national championships are held here. There were many instances of Omi Jingu in the anime, so it was like a dream come true to be able to step foot here.
Karuta is made up of 100 poems, but only some are displayed here. Each poem holds a deep meaning, and even til now, I don’t know them all. So it’s nice to see them here. It's said that the creation of the karuta game is connected to this shrine.
I haven't met Chihaya, Taichi nor Arata here during my visit, but maybe during January or July, when the karuta championships are being conducted, maybe I'll meet them. 😅
Apparently, this Shinto shrine was constructed in 1940 and was dedicated to the 38th emperor, Emperor Tenji, who was also enshrined as a deity here. It took 3 years to build this shrine. 1940 marked as the 2,600 years since the first emperor so this was commemorated at that year.
And now, there are a lot of facilities in the premises.
It was late in the afternoon that we arrived and walked around the shrine premises. There weren't a lot of people, but I wonder if this gets packed during karuta championships. I want to come back here to watch a game! I guess this is also where the karuta meijin (for men's) and karuta queen (for women's) matches happen.
Aside from karuta, it seems like there's also traditional horseback archery performed in this shrine during Spring.
The shrine is surrounded by the vast forest so it was pretty cool when we were touring around. The red (or is it orange?) gates were so striking and good to look at.
We wanted to go inside the Omi Jingu Clock Museum, but they closed at 5pm. Time check, it's almost 5pm. The grounds were however full of ancient clocks, including a sundial, which we don't know how to read/use.
Since we're here, I wanted to get myself a karuta deck but couldn't find one. Maybe it's inside the museum?
We didn't stay long in this sacred ground but I was so happy being able to visit here. Hopefully there's a next time!
Happy Hive Power Up day!
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
With love,
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.