Shimogamo Shrine and mitarashi dango

The official name of Shimogamo Shrine is actually Kamo-mioya-jinja, but the shrine is normally called Shimogamo, the lover Kamo Shrine. The shrine is located by the Kamo River, close to Demachiyanagi Station, and the shrine enshrines Tamayori-hime and Kamo Wakeikazuchi. The shrine is one of the oldest in Kyoto. The shrine buildings are in the Heian-style born over 1000 years ago, so the shrine has a very stately feel to it.

You can also find many smaller shrines at the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine, like Aoisha, where you can pray for a good marriage partner, or Kawai Shrine, where you can pray for beauty. As you can probably guess, these shrines are very popular among women, but the ema votive plaques of Kawai Shrine shaped like hand mirrors are especially popular.

When you talk of mitarashi dango, the little-skewered rice cakes in a sweet soy sauce, in Kyoto, many people start thinking about shrines and temples. The fragrant mitarashi dango are grilled right before they’re served to you, and the color and smell of them are sure to make your appetite run wild.

But here at Kamo Mitarashi Chaya the mitarashi dango is a bit different from the ordinary ones. If you look carefully at them, you can see that the rice cake highest on the skewer is a bit separated from the others; it’s said that the lover four are the limbs of a man, and the highest one is the head. Eating this mitarashi dango is said to bring good health and keep away bad spirits. It’s even said that this was the place where mitarashi dango were first made!