Himukai Daijingu & The Goddess Cave. A Kyoto Power Spot.
Keage Station
The starting point for this walking guide is the Keage Station on the subway Tozai Line. The station is quite new, opening in 1997, and from here, exiting on the east side of Sanjo-dori and heading south we soon come to the next point of interest on this walking route. Keage is convenient in that it is just two stops from Sanjo Station in the city centre (connecting to the Keihan Line).
Himukai Daijingu First Torii
After just a few minutes walking south the route comes to the first stone torii gate to mark the entrance to Himukai Daijingu (although the entrance is here it will be about another 300m before we actually reach the shrine itself). Following the stone path beyond the torii we find ourselves leaving Higashiyama-ku (ward) and stepping into Yamashina-ku. Created in 1976 as Yamashina-ku, Yamashina used to be a farming village located between Kyoto and Shiga acting as a traffic route connecting Kyoto to east Japan. In Edo times it was a busy and flourishing area along the Tokaido Road and although this walking route doesn’t venture far into Yamashina-ku, the ward does boast the Tomb of Emperor Tenji, the oldest imperial tomb in Kyoto, as well as the Tomb of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (8th-9th century Shogun serving Emperors Kanmu, Heizei, and Saga).
