After leaving Kamigamo shrine I set off t0 explore the foothills of the edge of the city to the west of Kamigamo in Nishigamo. On my walks I hope to discover the little-known "folk" shrines that were the norm in traditional Japan before the creation of State Shinto in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Sure enough, I found one at the top of one of the villages in the area. This one is called Mura-sha, which simply means "Village Shrine". It had this wonderful natural wood torii.
Due no doubt to its proximity to Kamigamo Shrine, the hondens at the rear each had a pair of tatesuna, but unlike any other tatesuna I've seen, these each had a stone protruding from the top. I havent been able to find out what these stones represent, but my guess is that they represent Iwakura , (stone seat), which are rock outcroppings usually on the top of mountains where the Kami descend to earth.
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