Visiting Nagoya’s Most Unusual Shrines

There’s a lot to do in Nagoya – but, one of my days was filled exploring some of Nagoya’s most quirky shrines. If you’re looking for a list of unusual things to do in Nagoya, you might want to start here.

One of the first things I do when I start researching a place to visit in Japan is try and find the quirky things to do there. It was at this moment that I realized I had not allowed enough time in Nagoya to do all the fun and unusual things to be done there – and, so, I had to narrow down my search for the strange.

And so I focused on the shrines. And what shrines they are…. There’s boobs, there’s male bits, there’s cute little doggos – and more. So, here’s our guide to Nagoya’s most unusual shrines – and a plan to cover them all in one day.

Mama Kannon – The Boob Shrine

Mr Japlanease does not do shrines, but even he made an exception for this one. Located about a 50-minute bus ride north from central Nagoya’s Mama Kannon temple is actually a shrine to safe childbirth and child-rearing, but presented via the medium of boobage!

The statues have milk-producing boobs, the ema are boobs, there are mammaries everywhere.

The story goes (because there is always a story) that, a local woman was having trouble feeding her baby as she was starving. A neighbour gave her some food, but, rather than eat it all she took it as an offering to the temple, and, after this her milk began to flow and her baby thrived.

From this point on, the temple has been a place for mothers to come and pray for good luck with feeding their babies and other elements of childbirth. But, women also come here to pray for other elements of breast health, including breast cancer, so, while it’s hard not to slightly regress into the humour of a four-year-old when you get here, please be respectful if anyone is praying at the shrine, or you see the priest here.

To get to Mama Kannon From Nagoya

Take the 111 or 113 bus from stop 23 of the main bus station by Nagoya Station. The final destination of the bus is Komaki Eki. You need to get off at a stop called Mamachichikannon-mae which should take about 42 minutes. The bus will likely have a screen in English so you won’t miss it.

This bus is a bit confusing to enter – take the ticket and then you’ll pay when you get to the other end. The journey should be around 610 yen. They do take IC cards. Also, don’t panic if the bus doesn’t stop much – it’s a highway bus, so most of your journey will be on the main road without stops. If I remember correctly, you need the first stop after the bus leaves the main highway – but keep your eye on maps to be sure.

The shrine is about 5 minutes walk from the bus stop.

Tagata Shrine – The ‘Male’ Shrine

Just to prove we’re not sexist with our shrines, our next strange shrine in Nagoya is Tagata Shrine and this one is dedicated to erm, male parts! Giant ones – in shiny hewn wood or made out of stone! Again, you’ll find prayer plaques covered in the little pink fellas – and, if you collect goshuin, I’ll give you three guesses what’s stamped in the middle of the one from here.

Not surprisingly, this shrine is one where people come to pray for fertility – but, back in the day, it was also where farmers came to pray for bumper crops.

If you’re in Nagoya on March 15th, the shrine has a ‘harvest festival’ where a newly carved two-and-a-half-metre long giant wooden appendage is paraded through the streets. It’s possible not going to be on the holiday pictures to show your gran!

To Get To Tagata Shrine From Nagoya

If you’re staying near Nagoya Station. Take the Meitetsu Line from Nagoya Station to Inuyama Station, and then change to the Meitetsu Komaki Line south to Tagata-Jinja Mae. The shrine is a six-minute walk down the main road from the station.

Or, another route is to take the Mejo Line, or a bus to Heiandori Station and change onto the Meitetsu Komaki line north to Tagata Jinja Mae.

Oagata Shrine – The ‘Female’ Shrine

Even though I spend weeks planning my trips, there’s always something I only discover once I get back – and, for this one, it was Oagata Shrine. This is the Yin to Tagata’s Yang, as it were, with a rock at the shrine said to resemble the female anatomy. Women come here to pray for an easier childbirth.

You could also try crawling through the tiny torii gate at the shrine which symbolises being reborn (do not try this if you are much bigger than a small Japanese woman or some kind of emergency rescue might be needed!).

This shrine also has its own parade on the Sunday before May 15th, but without the equivalent 150cm model of lady parts. Instead, women march in symbolic pale pink shawls – and the candy treats get interesting.

How To Get to Oagata Shrine From Nagoya

Do you want to know the really galling thing about me missing Oagata Shrine – it’s pretty close to Tagata Shrine! In fact, you go past the nearest station to Oagata if you come on the route from Nagoya station. So, if you want to visit follow the route above and get off at Gakudan Station instead.

Coming from the other way, you’ll stay on the train one more stop to Gakudan.

The shrine is a 23-minute walk from the station.

Wakaoe -The Instagram Shrine

If you ended up here from my two-day Nagoya itinerary, you’ll have seen that I suggest this as an additional stop on that plan because it is so pretty.

If you haven’t here’s what you need to know…

The Wakeoe shrine is an Instagrammers paradise’ of flowers, umbrellas, wisteria and colour (the picture at the top of this post is also Wakeoe).

Not surprisingly, for such an aesthetic space, the goshuin (temple stamps) at Wakeoe Shrine are stunning – and they vary their designs which makes them very popular with collectors. If it’s a busy day there might be a bit of a queue, so collect a numbered ticket when you hand over your goshuin book and they’ll call you when yours is ready. The shrine is open 24 hours, but if you do want to get a stamp, then get here before 4pm so the office is open.

There’s a lot going on at Wakoeo in terms of different ways to worship and get your wishes granted, but a few small details not to miss are the bronze statue of Ebisu with a fish – you stroke different parts of this for different benefits. His ears will convey luck, the fish is for money and his beard is for overall good health.

You’ll notice cute dog details around the shrine, this is because Wakeoe is somewhere you can come to pray for the health of your pets.

Lastly, you might want to throw a lucky ball. These are made of china and the idea is that you write something you want to break on the ball – a run of bad luck, a bad habit, a bad relationship, on the ball, then throw it to smash on the designated rock.

To Get to Wakeoe Shrine

From Nagoya Station: Take the No13 Bus, the stop name is in Japanese, but looks like this – 金田町五丁目（バス) – which, if I’ve translated it right is something like Kanadachogo Chome. The journey time is about 45 minutes but you’ll want to check Google Maps on this one to make sure you spot it.

From Sakae Station: Take the No12 Bus to Tsujicho stop, the journey time is about 25 minutes.

Inu Shrine – The Dog Shrine

After leaving Wakeoe Shrine, I jumped on a bus to take me back to town – I was checking the map when I realised we were kind of going past another shrine I’d saved on my list but had vetoed as being too far to walk – cue me suddenly hitting the stop button!

A short walk later I was surrounded by VIPs – very important puppers!

Now, despite what you might assume when you arrive here and see giant dog statues, dog prayer plaques, tiny china dogs to place around the shrine and many other canine accessories, you do not come here to pray for the health of your puppy (do that at Wakeoe).

Instead, this is another shrine for successful childbirth, something that’s said to occur if you stroke the dog statue. The story (I told you there is always a story) is that the nearby village was plagued by flooding. They asked a priest for help and he handed them an offering called a gohei and told them not to open it. The floods stopped.

Intrigued, the villagers got nosy (this never ends well in legends) and opened the gohei – instead were a picture of a dog and the words ‘King of Dogs’ – the floods started again.

When the priest returned the villagers confessed and asked for his help. He told them to bury the gohei and build a shrine upon it – that shrine was called Inu Shrine in honor of the message – and because dogs also tend to have easy labours, the shrine became known for childbirth.

You can buy all sorts of amulets and charms here to give to pregnant friends.

How to Get to the Inu Shrine

Head to Nagoya Station: Jump on bus 13 for 26 minutes. The shrine is about 5 minutes walk away. This is the best route to minimize your walking, but, if you do want to catch the train from somewhere else in Nagoya, head to the blue Tsurumai line and get off at Shonaidori Station. The shrine is a 15-minute walk from here.

Grabbing Lunch Near the Inu Shrine

I did four of the five shrines above in a morning and by this point, I was pretty hungry – so, before I got the bus back to the city, I grabbed some ramen at Manruku which was the closest place I could find to the Inu Shrine.

This is a very local place, popular with local office workers. Don’t expect any menus in English, or anyone to speak English – instead, I just relied on the rule when ordering from a Japanese ticket machine – the top left button is normally the best-selling thing on the menu – so, I pushed it.

And this is what arrived! Not bad. Definitely give it a try if you’re up here.

Miwa Shrine – The Bunny Shrine

Right, refuelled, it’s time for our last quirky shrine of the day – the Bunny Shrine which is located on the edge of the busy Osu shopping district in the main part of Nagoya.

Okay so Miwa Shrine is not just about bunnies, but, there’s a lot of bunny stuff here so I’m going with it. Most important is the Happy Petting Rabbit, as the shrine refers to their biggest statue of a bunny.

Apparently, stroking him will lead to happiness – and why wouldn’t it? Or, if you have pain in a part of your body you can rub the respective part of the bunny for healing.

I didn’t do this the same day as the other shrines so I didn’t have my goshuin book the day I went here and that was a big mistake because they are VERY cute. If you are a goshuin collector, make sure you bring your book on this day because you’ll get some very distinctive ones.

You might notice a few other things at the shrine – people tying red strings around the large tree are hoping to bless their marriages, and if you see people seemingly walking in circles, they are actually walking a figure of eight around the base of the grey tori gate in the middle of the shrine which is said to grant many blessings.

From here, you’re within walking distance of many of other Nagoya’s big sites. If you haven’t had enough of shrines, you might want to visit Osu Kannon, or Banshoji Temple (see more about these in our itinerary). Or, do some shopping in the Osu District.

How to Get Around All The Shrines in a Morning

If you try and plan the above itinerary yourself, it looks very confusing. I spent quite a few hours trying to work out the most efficient route that didn’t require a taxi, but, here’s how I did it. You will need Google Maps for the walking directions and as a safety net for the bus stops, so if you haven’t yet worked out how you’re going to get online in Japan, check out our guide to finding the best method for you.

1. Nagoya Station to Mama Kannon

Get the 111 or 113 bus from Nagoya Station for about 40 minutes. Get off at Mamachichikannon-mae – from here it’s about 5-minute walk to the shrine. I got the 8.10 bus which got me to the shrine at 9am.

2. Mama Kannon to Oagata and/or Tagata

Repeat your steps, and catch the 111, 113 or 65 bus from the same stop you just got off at. Get off at Komaki Station – it will take about 10 minutes to get there. I got the 9.38 bus – the shrine is quite small so this was plenty of time.

From Komaki Station change to the train and take the Meitetsu Komaki Line north – it’s four stops to Oagata or three to Tagata. The trains run about every 15 minutes so don’t stress if you just miss one.

To just go to Tagata, get off at Tagata-jinga. If you want to go to Oagata, stay on the train to Gakuden. Then, after you’ve seen Oagata, retrace your steps on this line to come back and get off at Tagata-jinga Mae

Just bear in mind that adding in Oagata will add about an hour’s extra travel – plus your time at the shrine – as it’s a bit of a walk from the station.

3. From Tagata Shrine to Wakeoe Shrine

Come back to Tagata-jinga Mae (check the important note above about what entrance to come into) and get the Meitetsu Komaki Line south to Kami-Lida station. From here it’s a 20-minute walk to Wakeoke Shrine.

If you’re hungry at this point, I’d suggest getting some food near the station – I planned to nip into somewhere cute on the way to the shrine. There is nothing cute on the way to the shrine!!

There is, however, a branch of the Matsuya chain by the station exit – they specialise in dishes called gyudon or beef on rice (one of the best Japanese foods for those who don’t like fish). I’m rather partial to the cheese and kimchi one. Or, hold out for the yummy ramen I mention above.

4. Wakeoe Shrine to Inu Shrine

Walk about 10 minutes to the No13 bus stop and catch this going west. It’s just a 5-minute journey.

5. Inu Shrine to Miwa Shrine

Walk 15 minutes (past the ramen place if you haven’t eaten yet) to Shonaidori Station and travel to Osukan-Non Station. From here it’s an eight-minute walk to Miwa Shrine.

So that’s our guide to some of Nagoya’s most fun and unusual shrines – I’m sure there are a few more if I look hard enough. Next time Nagoya. Next time.

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