Ana-hachimangu Shrine — Attraction in Tokyo

Ana-hachimangu Shrine, with 900 years of history, is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the believers, especially for businessmen. But it is a surprised that not many students from Waseda University pray here for good academic performance, when the Shrine is in walking distance from Waseda University.

Ana-hachimangu Shrine has a red-color Torii gate, which is different from Shinto Shrine when most of them have natural wood color.

Shrine's worship hall is open to the public, and it is also quite different from Shinto shrines which block entrance to the worship hall from general public.

In addition, Shrine has numerous tall trees in its yard and along its worship avenue. This makes Ana-hachimangu Shrine a pleasant place to visit even for non-religious people.

Shrine is free for entrance, and it has public toilet opening...

The shrine is beautifully renewed. The marble edges are all finely honed and the orange and gold paint shimmers crisply. It took us a long time to visit this shrine even though we live right next to it, because the front entrance has very steep steps and is not wheelchair accessible. I later realized that if you go around the corner and head up Waseda-dori a little ways, you can enter through the rear / vehicle entrance where there are no stairs. The grounds are beautiful and it's worth a look around, but it's impossible for wheelchair users to actually approach the inner shrine to pray or toss an offering in the box, because there are only stairs and no ramp. I see there is still construction continuing in some areas, so I truly hope that adding a ramp is in their...

Very majestic looking shrine near the Waseda University campus. The shrine isn't very big, but the layout of the shrine and its charming surrounding environment invoke a pleasant, feel good feeling.

One curious thing about the shrine is its main gate/door. Usually the imposing statues of deities Fujin and Raijin "stand" guard at the main gate, but for this particular shrine, there are 2 figures of samurai with bows and arrows. Not entirely sure the reason behind this.

The shrine was quite "empty" when I was there. There were only 2-3 people paying their respects and the shrine office appeared to be closed. There is a little park next to the shrine that leads to the Waseda...