One of the most popular ways to enjoy Kyoto is to visit shrines and temples, and on your tour of shrines and temples you can enjoy drawing an omikuji. Omikuji are strips of paper on which random fortunes are written and you usually select one of them from a box at shrines and temples. In Kyoto, you may come across omikuji contained in cute figurines, which are often figures of animals related to the locales of the respective shrines and temples. They will make a nice souvenir!
The history of Iwashimizu Hachimangu goes way back to 859, and many of the buildings including the Honden main hall of this shrine complex have been designated as national treasures. At this shrine, you can find omikuji in the shape of a pigeon, a symbol of the shrine (500 yen). There are two kinds, one facing to the right and one facing the left. They are great souvenirs for a couple or friends.
| Access | Take a cable car from Iwashimizu-hachimangu Sta. (Keihan). |
| URL | https://iwashimizu.or.jp/ |
Located on the north side of the downtown area of Kyoto City, Kamigamo Shrine is one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto. At this shrine, you can find a cute omikuji of a small carved wooden horse with a fortune paper in its mouth (500 yen). This shrine has a “shinme,” a sacred horse dedicated to the deities, so its omikuji has a horse motif.
| Access | Take the Kyoto City Bus No. 4 from Kyoto Sta., get off at Kamigamo Jinja-mae stop. |
| URL | https://www.kamigamojinja.jp/en/ |
This shrine has a Honden main hall, which is said to be the oldest shrine building in Japan, more than 1,000 years old. The name of the region, “Uji,” where this shrine is located, came from the fact that the combination of two kanji characters, one meaning “usagi” (rabbit) and the other meaning “michi” (road), used to be read as “uji.” The shrine still has many motifs related to rabbits. There are two kinds of omikuji: omikuji with papier-mache rabbits in four different colors and omikuji with ceramic rabbits in five different colors (300 yen each).
| Access | 10-minute walk from Uji Sta. (Keihan) |
| URL | ttps://ujikamijinja.amebaownd.com/ |
