Washinomiya Shrine — the real Lucky Star
Washinomiya Shrine (鷲宮神社) is the oldest shrine in the Kantou region of Japan. It also happens to be one of the setting locations for Kyoto Animation’s Lucky Star, the very shrine that Kagami and Tsukasa work part-time as shrine maidens. I paid a visit today and took some interesting pictures.
How to get there
The shrine is located about 10 minutes away from Washinomiya Station (鷲宮駅) on the Toubu Isesaki Line (東武伊勢崎線). You can take the train directly from the Tokyo Metro subway station in Asakusa. The town is in the Saitama Prefecture and it is rather rural compared to the tourist-filled parts of Tokyo.
Alternatively you can also take the Hibiya Line from Akihabara and transfer to the Toubu Isesaki Line at Kita-Senju. In either case, the train goes to Kuki (久喜) and from there you have to transfer to a local line and take one stop to Washinomiya.
The world’s best map
Basically you walk straight from the station until you cross a river and hit a traffic light junction, which also happens to be the only set of traffic lights I saw in the area. Then, you turn left and the shrine beckons.
What is there
The first thing I saw when I reached the shrine was a Tsuruya itasha parked in the lot. Awesome.
The second thing I saw was a live-size voodoo doll of what I presume to be Konata. Looks like the local folks are fully exploiting this unplanned desecration of their local traditions. Good for them.
Inside the shrine
Most of the shrine is rather standard fare. There are places to wash your hands, hang ema, draw omikuji and pray. If you’ve seen one Shinto shrine in Japan, you’ve seen them all. Except maybe for the ones in Kyoto, which are pretty cool and occasionally unique.
There are some peacocks there for some reason
Here lieth a dragon god
Behold! The dragon’s lair!
The crux
The most important thing to check out while you are at Washinomiya is of course the ema (絵馬) wood blocks. Simply exquisite. Or horrifying, depending on how you view the whole phenomenon.
This guy is the king
For all the angry G00 fans out there
A proposal for Aya Hirano
This guy is very greedy
International marriage
I don’t understand what this guy wants
Moé diplomacy
It’s still the same guy. He visited 57 times
Yeah it’s him
He draws pretty well
I suppose it’s all rather harmless fun, and the town is apparently making quite a lot of money from the unexpected attention. Still, I wonder how the hardcore shrine goers feel about this moé invasion.
Well. The train ride to Saitama from urban Tokyo was long and expensive (be prepared to shell out close to 1,000 yen per trip depending on which part of Tokyo you start from), but all in all it was quite an interesting experience.
If you plan to make the pilgrimage, you can consider checking out the official website for any upcoming events.
My previous visits to real-life anime locations include the train stations for School Days and Lucky Star.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
WOW! DM, you are living my dream. I actually wanted to visit Washinomiya Shrine during my trip to Japan this year.
However, due to certain reasons, my trop was delayed until next year.
Thank you so much for writing the guide. Is is one of the few that I can find on the net that is in English. Will definietly use this next year! :)
December 19th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I just wish I knew where to get one of those “Otaku in car” signs.
December 19th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
DM allways talinkg about japan i think i have to visited that country :)
December 19th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
So did you put up any of your own?
December 19th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
That car is awesome. Does all shrine have people put up thos anime drawings?
December 20th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Most shrines have some, but Washinomiya wins hands down in terms of volume.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I think the door guardian is not just a Konota spoof but also a Kuiadore knock off…
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~sedwards/photos/crazyjapan200207/Pages/Image22.html
December 20th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Anyone know what the script is in this picture?
http://gallery.darkmirage.com/2008_japan/washinomiya/image/400/IMG_1342.JPG
December 20th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I wonder if my plate is there when I went…
I saw most of those when I went to Japan in the summer…
It’s so peaceful and it was fun!!!!!
When I went, there was also those cars there too…but when I went there was a lot more…still, I didn’t see that car when I went to the Lucky Star shrine in Washinomiya…
December 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Never watched Lucky Star but, nice shot of the gate. Matches almost perfectly apart from the extra details they drew in! Did you memorise the shot from the opening or something?
That is a lot of Anime drawings at a shrine… I doubt you would find any at all if you knocked down the parches up in the wishing tree in Hong Kong!
@Kino
That’s Thai. I can’t read Thai though =/
December 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I’ve firm plans to go to Washinomiya Shrine in April 2009 – nice preview, I think it’d help us find our way there. Some interesting pics of the wood blocks too – you didn’t put one up yourself, did you?
December 21st, 2008 at 6:29 am
Otaku shrines are scary. orz
December 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Lucky Star strikes again. I wouldn’t think those hardcore shrine goers are taking it very well unless they’re also into anime. But one thing for sure is that whoever is doing those anime drawing he sure got good drawing skills.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
So cool!
December 21st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Cool…
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:48 am
Lol at the guy from Wales. Good thing he didn’t leave any personal info else I’m pretty sure he’d be dead.
Btw, what does that sign say regarding Setsuna? I can only make out 刹那
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Why are there so many queer japanese people?!?!!?!!??!!?
That british guy that said Konota is his wife 有老年痴呆
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Hey I just did find your blog. Good Stuff! Don’t have time now to read trough all the topics but I will come back later to read more.
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 am
@I Like Pie:
When did he ever said he has senile dementia? Just a UK-taku or something.
I’m still BAWWWW’ing over the fact DM has stopped reviewing Gundam 00, I can’t find any other reviews on the net for the latest episodes.
Did my avatar have to be gay. =(
December 25th, 2008 at 12:25 am
thanks for the tip on how to get there too! did you ever get the urge to “dance” like the girls did on those places?
December 30th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Dunno if you saw this before, but there was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago about how Washinomiya Jinja was totally exploiting Lucky Star…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737740486095275.html?mod=hps_us_pageone
January 1st, 2009 at 11:25 pm
@GNDynames: Ore Watashi ga Gandamu da. You do the translation.
LOL the wales guy is unfamiliar with the ‘mai waifu’ term.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
lol… watashi ga gandamu da.
Nice pictures btw. I think I’ll make it a point to visit when everything’s all better.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:25 am
I enjoyed these pictures and this article.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I’m planning to go Wednesday or during golden week :o)
May 6th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’m afraid I’m the culprit of that boring ema that said “Greetings from Wales. Konata is my wife”. I wish I could have drawn a wonderful picture like the others but my drawing skills are crap so I just wrote that.
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