Visiting Uji Shrine and Ujigami Shrine

Table of Contents

Sightseeing Around Uji

Next, I headed to Uji Shrine and Ujigami Shrine. First up was Uji Shrine at the front.

It’s a beautifully maintained shrine and very clean-looking.

Then, after passing through the grounds and heading farther in, I came to Ujigami Shrine, one of Kyoto’s World Heritage Sites.

What makes Ujigami Shrine so remarkable, apparently, is that it is the oldest shrine building in Japan.

https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/isan/ujigami.html

This has nothing to do with the shrine itself, but the lush green maple leaves were absolutely beautiful.

The first thing you see when you enter is the worship hall. I heard this one is a National Treasure.

Towering behind it is the main hall. It doesn’t look like a shrine building at all, but this is the oldest shrine architecture in Japan.

At first glance, it just looks like an ordinary one-story building or something, but it has an unusual style with three shrine sanctuaries inside (see the Kyoto Shimbun article below).

https://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/articles/-/34650

Apparently, shrine buildings constructed in the Heian period were combined into one in the Kamakura period, and the sheer scale of that timeline kind of blew my mind. (To be honest, I was satisfied just making an offering and didn’t look inside, so I regret that a bit… haha.)