Kurumazaki Shrine, where even the Straw Hat Pirates pray, and its surroundings are a treasure trove of rare history: LUMIX G1 and LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm

Sagano, located a little away from the hustle and bustle of Arashiyama, Kyoto.
I lived in this area as a child, and when I dared to look into things that I took for granted back then and never questioned, I found it was a treasure trove of rare history.
This time, I will introduce three of these rare spots.

Kurumazaki Shrine, named after an apology

Now, with its bright red rows of tamagaki (votive fences) bearing the names of famous idols and actors, it is the"sacred site of entertainment, Kurumazaki Shrine".
As a child, I was very familiar with this shrine as a playground, and I often saw period drama actors coming to pray, so I had no doubt until now that it was the "god of entertainment."However, this place was originally a grave, and it had a history of being a"god of learning"and then a"god of prosperous business."
The origin of this shrine itself is interesting.
In the Kamakura period, the shaft of the ox-drawn carriage that Emperor Go-Saga was riding in broke with a loud noise in front of this shrine.As the noble carriage suddenly came to a standstill, the panicked attendants investigated and found that it was the "Sakura-no-miya," the mausoleum of Kiyohara no Yorinari, a Confucian scholar and Daigeki (senior secretary) of the Dajokan in the Heian period.
It is said that Emperor Go-Saga, who apologized profusely, saying, "It must be because I tried to pass in front of the god of learning while still riding in a vehicle," bestowed the divine name "Kurumazaki Daimyojin" (Car-breaking Great Deity) as an apology.※There is also a tradition that the carriage began to move once Emperor Go-Saga got off and bowed to the shrine, or that it was Emperor Kameyama who passed by Yorinari's mausoleum.

Kurumazaki Shrine has various shrines, but among them, the "Sei Shonagon Shrine" is rare. Although the true identity of Sei Shonagon is not clear, there is a theory that her real name was "Kiyohara no Nagiko," making her a relative of Kiyohara no Yorinari, and a shrine was built to worship her in this place with which she had ties.

However, what makes this shrine interesting is the "tenacity of humans" that even surpasses such gods.
In the Edo period, merchants in Osaka took note of the name "Yorinari" of this Yorinari-ko,"Yorinari... Yorinari... Ah! Money will 'yori' (gather/approach), and business will 'nari' (succeed/be realized)!"It was just a pun.
However, these business-minded people took this forced wordplay very seriously and fashioned him into the"god of prosperous business."The fact that this continues even today, the god of learning must never have thought his name would be hacked in such a way.

And in the Meiji era, it was Tessai Tomioka, a master of modern Japanese painting, who saved this shrine from the crisis of decline."I cannot bear to see Yorinari-ko's shrine fall into ruin!"Furious, Tessai actually became the chief priest himself.It was an extreme way of saving it, typical of an artist, where he sold his own paintings and poured all the funds into the reconstruction of the shrine.

And then the high economic growth period of the Showa era. While Kyoto was thriving as the Hollywood of Japan and a mecca for film production, it gathered deep faith from those involved in the Toei and Shochiku film studios in Uzumasa, and became famous as one of Japan's leading "entertainment shrines."
Recently, exposure in media and on social media has increased, and it has become more glamorous year by year.
It has become far removed from its simple Showa-era appearance, but I make sure to visit this shrine, which holds many memories, every year.

Was it you who was the culprit behind my frustrating memories!? "Ando-no-to (Tower of Relief)"

Away to the north of Kurumazaki Shrine, along the Arisugawa River south of Shin-Marutamachi-dori, there is a small stone monument called "Ando-no-to (Luluge-san)" that is quietly buried.

I lived in the neighborhood until I was in the third grade of elementary school, but I never noticed this stone monument.
When I discovered it by chance this time and looked into its history...

It is just a monumental thing, butwhat caught my attention was that it was the lid of the Kabutozuka Kofun.
When I was in elementary school, super balls were popular, and I would play a game like catch with the super balls I bought with my meager pocket money, making them bounce high. But if they bounced too much and I failed to catch them, the ball wouldget sucked into the open side hole of the Kabutozuka Kofun—an experience I had... over and over again...
I couldn't enter the side hole of the burial mound because it was private property and had an iron fence... How frustrated I felt staring at the fluorescent super ball peeking out from the depths of the hole...
I should have just not played near the burial mound, but being a child, I suppose I was also enjoying the thrill of losing the ball, haha.
The one who took the lid of the side hole was'Ryugeju-in, was it you!'With the culprit of my frustrating memories identified, I head to the next place feeling refreshed.

The 'Aburakake Jizo-son' that I thought was a candy shop

If you head west along the Arisugawa River where Ruruge-san is, you will come across a hall that looks like a house. Enshrined there quietly is the'Saga Aburakake Jizo', shining glossy with oil. This place used to be very lively, and the bench in front of the Jizo statue was a gathering place for the elderly. I used to visit repeatedly, aiming for the candy that the gathering elderly would give as a reward for praying. The more I visited, the more I was thought of as a devout child, and the grade of the candy kept going up!
It is no exaggeration to say that I learned the taste of high-class sweets here, haha.

However, I am now shocked by the fact that this was not a 'Jizo-son'!
If you say it is 'Dainichi Nyorai' as written on the frame of the goeika (Buddhist hymn), that is also a mistake...

At the time, I only heard it called 'Jizo-san' by the elderly who gave me candy, haha.
I'm sure there are places close to you all where, if you dare to investigate, shocking facts will emerge.

■ Equipment used
Panasonic LUMIX G1
LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm

It was the world's first mirrorless camera, released in 2008, and it was also my first mirrorless camera, which I bought because I wanted to use various old lenses.
Perhaps thanks to its simple specs as a photo-only machine that can't even shoot video, it's an honor student that hasn't broken once in the 15+ years I've been using it.
The onset of its chronic sticky paint disease was no exception, and I wiped it down with baking soda until the lettering came off, so now I have to operate it relying on memory and intuition. However, it's a good point of Panasonic that the button assignments don't change even on the successor models I own, so I don't have much trouble with operation.
The M4/3 sensor, which is small, is often said to have poor image quality, but personally, I am quite satisfied, and I continue with a system where mirrorless is M4/3 and APS-C is Pentax.
The lens is the second-generation kit lens. This model also doesn't have a very good reputation for image quality, but it is lighter than the first generation, and I find it useful as it brings out the small and lightweight advantages of M4/3.
My complaint is that when using MF on the G1, I can't grasp the focus peak at all, whether through the EVF or the monitor. I can view it magnified, but I can't be bothered with such annoying things. It became exclusively an AF machine, and it did not become the old lens camera I originally intended.