Gojinja Shrine

Go-o Shrine enshrines Wake no Kiyomaro, who worked to build the new capital of Heian-kyo. The present buildings were raised on this site in 1886. Because a wild boar is said to have saved Kiyomaro from danger, the shrine has stone boars in place of the usual guardian lions. Beside the shrine office some 3,000 boar figures are displayed, and on the north side of the grounds stand a bronze statue of Kiyomaro and a sazare-ishi conglomerate weighing around seven tonnes. The annual festival falls on 4 April; on 1 November the Inoko festival re-enacts the Heian court ceremony of pounding inoko rice cakes. The shrine is prayed to for the health of the legs and lower back.