Kifune Jinja

Quick facts

Address

180 Kuramakibunecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

About this place

Kifune Jinja is at Kuramakibune in Sakyo, Kyoto. Its deity Kifune Okami is held to govern the supply of water. The shrine has long been celebrated as the shrine of love, and holds a subordinate shrine enshrining a deity of matchmaking. Alongside gratitude for the blessing of water, it names protection from water-related misfortune, safety of the household, prosperity in business, the fulfilment of wishes, and the warding off of misfortune.

Origin and history

Kifune Okami, the deity of Kifune Jinja, is held to govern the supply of water.

The shrine has long been celebrated as the shrine of love, and holds a subordinate shrine enshrining a deity of matchmaking.

Alongside gratitude for the blessing of water, it names protection from water-related misfortune, safety of the household, prosperity in business, the fulfilment of wishes, and the warding off of misfortune.

What it is locally associated with

• Power spotLove & Romance

  The shrine of love

  The shrine has long been celebrated as the shrine of love, and holds a subordinate shrine to a deity of matchmaking.

  documented history

• Power spotProtection & Safety

  The deity of water’s supply

  Kifune Okami is held to govern the supply of water, and protection from water-related misfortune is named.

  documented history

• Power spotMoney & ProsperityWish Fulfillment

  Household, trade and wishes

  Beside gratitude for water, the shrine names household safety, prosperity in business, the fulfilment of wishes, and warding off misfortune.

  documented history

This shrine has two faces that do not obviously go together. One is water. Its deity is held to govern the supply of water, which is where the shrine’s phrase for gratitude for water comes from, and why protection from water-related misfortune is on its list.

The other is love. The shrine has long been famous as the shrine of love, and a subordinate shrine within the grounds enshrines a deity of matchmaking. A shrine of the water deity has also been called the shrine of love.

Beside those it names the safety of the household, prosperity in business, the fulfilment of wishes and the warding off of misfortune — daily life, trade and wanting, listed at a shrine of water.

Related guides

• How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
• What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
• Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
• Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

1. 祈る — 貴船神社 — Kifune Jinja (accessed 2026-08-13)