Namba One Shrine – made entirely of cookies and chocolates
There’s often a lighthearted aspect to Shinto, evidence of which can be seen in ‘a candy shrine’ to Valentine’s Day put up by a shopping centre in Osaka. You could see it as a curious mix of the traditional enmusubi (love connection) aspect of shrines with imported notions about love on Valentine’s Day. The result, as this report from the Japan Times shows, is peculiarly Japanese. (The website for the shrine speaks of Fushimi Inari as ‘a love power spot’, and being able to hang up an ema at the Valentine shrine as a means of gaining romantic fulfilment.)
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Matchmaking Namba One Shrine
Valentine’s Day in Japan is quite a different affair to that of the West. On Feb. 14, it is the women who confess their love to the men, and they do so by giving chocolates to the objects of their affections.
Women don’t take this custom lightly, looking for good chocolates, sometimes even making them. To help them in their love quest, Namba Walk, an underground shopping center in Osaka has set up a Namba One (No. 1) match-making shrine.
Constructed entirely from cookies, biscuits, macaroons and chocolates, this shrine was designed and created by students from Osaka Cooking and Confectionery College. It’s a sweets version of Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, which is famous for its god of good fortune and matchmaking. Like any other shrine, visitors will find ema (votive tablets) and omikuji (written fortunes), while special gifts will also be given to visitors looking for romance. (Izumi Iwaki)
The shrine's logo, complete with the Inari konkon mascot
For some odd reason, I suddenly have the urge to write a Japanese-inflected version of Hansel and Gretel… :)