That said, I’ve actually walked through this shrine dozens of times as a short cut through Gion, and never taken the time to really understand what it was dedicated to. Cheers for the post – benkyo ni narimashita.

Adding to Adamu’s point that the “love hotels make sense because illicit couples can take a trip to the shrine, pray for more legitimate circumstances, and then head off to continue their affairs,” its worthy also to note the proximity of those love hotels to the Gion to frame the areas context more completely. Gion is after all the Kyoto’s most prized district of “water business” that specializes in catering to men who want to engage in extramarital activities. It makes sense that there would be a place to vent the emotions associates with this.

As an interesting tangent to that idea, there was an interview in the Kyoto Journal with Yoshikawa Sakiko that discusses (amongst other things) the function of “spaces of healing” (癒しの空間 iyashi no kuukan) in Japanese society as important outlets for various kinds of emotions. While these spaces of healing would obviously include the more significant temples, shines and other places of warship, the interviewee was careful to highlight their function of providing an outlet for negative emotions, such as what you see in Yasui Konpiragu, but also on the more basic level the jizo that can be seen in the neighborhood shrines found everywhere (I can’t remember their proper name – maybe yagura?) that serve to not only protect children, but also as an outlet to people mourning lost and even aborted children. As a more extreme, and totally interesting, example she discussed the statue of Enma (閻魔) – who was the adjudicator of Buddhist Hell (kind of a reversed St. Peter figure) – as not being a scary figure despite his appearance, but a compassionate one that helps give people who have lost loved ones peace of mind. (One of the best examples of this can be found at the Senbon Enmado which is not revealed to the public except for the month or so following Obon – a must see for fans of freaky Japanese culture.)

As in anything, people may use spirituality to justify their own selfish gains or silly behavior. It doesn’t take away from the intent though.

In my half-hearted defense, all of the half-dozen or so Japanese blogs writing about visiting this shrine also felt compelled to post transcripts of some of the more interesting ema, even if they didn’t post actual photos.

Mrs. Adamu, who was raised Shinto whatever that means, felt that Roy photographing people’s innermost wishes like this violates the sacred nature of the Ema.

I guess in some sense the shrines are analagous to our churches or the Arlington National Cemetery, so maybe this is a little like how Americans might feel a little cheapened watching a group of Japanese tourists posing in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier without appreciating or respecting what it means.