Kibitsu Shrine – Okayama City, Japan

26 January 2017. 

Our next stop was Kibitsu-jinja Shrine.

Before entering, visitors need to purify themselves at the temizuya. We took off our gloves and used the icy water (it was winter when we visited❄) and washed both our hands and lips. 

Then, off into the shrine we went!

We climbed two flights of stairs, and were finally greeted with the beautiful shrine. 

The shrine compound was buzzing with activities. There were shops selling souvenirs, the most famous of them all were the daruma dolls.

Here’s how it works: 

Both eyes are intentionally left blank. When you make a wish, colour in one of the eyes. Then, when you wish comes true, you colour the other eye. Pretty cool, right? And they make very cute desk decorations 😄

There was also a fortune-telling booth. It cost JPY100, and most interestingly, it was guarded by a cat when we were there 🐱

The shrine is well-known for its long corridor (360 metres). 

Along the walk to the end, you can see many shinto gates at the sides, with rocks piled up on the top. 

Our guide explained that when you throw a rock to the top of the gate and it stays, your wish will come true. 

Some of us tried, but ended up dislodging a rock or two from the top of the gate instead of making our rock stay up. Not only our wish is not coming true, we also messed with someone elses’ wishes! 😰
In the end, we arrived at our destination. Our group got an opportunity to participate in the “Narukama Shinji” fortune-telling ritual. 

According to legends, the demon Ura was slayed by Momotaro and its head was buried underneath the stove that is used for this ceremony. 

A basket of rice is placed on top of the stove while a Shinto priest chanted. A sound from the stove may be heard, signalling that your wish will come true. 

If there are no sound from the stove, try again next time 😂

Our host, Ryobi wished for good fortune. Soon, the room was filled with smoke from the rice basket. Suddenly, a low humming sound came from the stove. 

Slowly, it reverberated throughout the room, getting louder and louder and more mystical as the priest chants accompanied it. It was amazing. 

After the ceremony ended, we were given some of the toasted rice in case we wanted to taste it. It tasted like, toasted uncooked rice. I didn’t know what I expected😅

The “Narukama Shinji” ritual was an incredible spiritual experience. If you pay Kibitsu Shrine a visit, make sure you take part. You will not regret it😊