Kibitsu Shrine - Okayama Oct 28 #1.

Kibutsu Shrine was my first port of call in Okayama, a City I had not previously visited. I used a Taxi from my hotel to the car parking area below the Shrine adjacent to the stairway entrance. I saw and photographed what I though sufficient and returned to the car park where I noticed a signboard complete with a map of the area but no telephone number for a taxi. A family of three, husband wife and daughter had followed me, they were also looking at the map so I asked if they knew a number for a Taxi, at this point they offered friendship in a manner unusual to their culture, first we would take lunch then they would drive me to another shrine ‘Kibitsu Hiko Shrine’ followed by a visit to Kokobun-ji an important Temple. At the end of our day together I was dropped of at a JR rail station, so that I could link to the Shinkansen back to Himeji, they would use the Motorway to Kyoto. Kibitsu Jinga (Shrine) is a Shinto shrine in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The Honden-Haiden is a National Treasure and the sole exemplar of the kibitsu-zukuri style of architecture, although the Soshidō of Hokekyō-ji is now believed to have been modeled thereon. The special feature being that it is a seven bay structure with eight upright support pillars. The most common or normal Shrines are 3 Bay. History Kibitsu Shrine was the chief Shinto shrine (Ichinomiya) of Bitchū Province. The enshrined kami is Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto, who was the son of legendary Emperor Korei of the Kibu Kingdom. The shrine was one of 23 sanctuaries in the mid-range of ranked Imperial shrines or Kanpei-chūsha. Haiden (Shinto) In Shinto shrine architecture, the haiden is the hall of worship or oratory. It is generally placed in front of the shrine's main sanctuary (honden) and often built on a larger scale than the latter. The haiden is often connected to the honden by a heiden, or hall of offerings. While the honden is the place for the enshrined kami and off-limits to the general public, the haiden provides a space for ceremonies and for worshiping the kami. In some cases, for example at Nara’s Ōmiwa Shrine, the honden can be missing and be replaced by a patch of sacred ground. In that case, the haiden is the most important building of the complex. John. Photographed on 10 28 2008 using; Canon EOS 400D SLR Digital Camera.