Whether you’re looking for a new love or to take an existing one to the next level, the gods are ready to help you at these four Shinto spots.

In Japan, it’s customary to start off the new year be going to a Shinto shrine to pray for good fortune in the new year. While many are thought to convey a vague blessing of overall prosperity, some shrines have become famous for their purported effects of enmusubi.

Enmusubi translates literally to “tying together connections” and refers to making good interpersonal connections. While the phrase can be applied to finding good business partners or general acquaintances, most of the time when people talk about enmusubi, they’re talking about romantic connections. So during the New Year’s season many Japanese singles pay a visit to an enmusubi shrine in hope of getting a little divine help in finding a boyfriend or girlfriend in the year to come, or maybe taking an existing relationship to the next level.

In a survey of 200 people, Japanese matchmaking site Happy Mail found that 73 percent of women and 62 percent of men had visited an enmusubi shrine, and so they’ve put together a list of famous shrines for making romantic connections.

1. Tokyo Daijingu (Tokyo)
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Located just a short walk from Iidabashi Station in downtown Tokyo, Tokyo Daijingu is so famous among those looking for love that it’s said that even just keeping a photo of the shrine as your phone’s wallpaper image is supposed to help steer a new romance your way. The shrine also offers omamori charms with suzuran, or lily of the valley, motifs, which carry the meaning of “joy will come your way” in the language of flowers in Japan, as well as charms with a unique construction of a board that splits in the middle. You write you name on one half and leave it at the shrine, then carry the remaining piece with you as you search for your soul mate.

2. Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine (Saitama)
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Susanoo-no-Mikoto, god of the sea and storms, is enshrined at this Shinto shrine in the town of Kawagoe, as is his wife Kushinadahime, who he rescued from the monstrous serpent Yamata no Orochi, and their son, Onamuchino-mikoto. With that background, it’s easy to see why Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine has become popular with those looking for a serious relationship and with those ready to start a family. Local belief holds that taking home one of the pebbles offered by the shrine will ensure a good match, but each day’s supply is limited to just 20 stones, which are distributed starting at 6:30 in the morning, so you’ll want to set your alarm if you’re looking to get one.

3. Yasaka Shrine (Kyoto)
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Situated in Kyoto’s famous Gion geisha district, Yasaka Shrine is also dedicated to Susanoo-no-Mikoto and Kushinadahime, plus contains a shrine to Okuninushi-no-Kami, revered as a god of matchmaking in Shinto folklore. Like many shrine, Yasaka offers ema, wooden prayer boards on which you write your wishes, and here they’re shaped like hearts. If you want to get even more into the good graces of the gods, there are also figurines shaped like rabbits (a creature Okuninushi-no-Kami treated with kindness) that are hollow, allowing you to slip a piece of paper inside with your ardent wish for love written on it.

4. Izumo-taisha (Shimane Prefecture)
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Izumo-taisha, also known as the Izumo Grand Shrine, is the head branch of the many Izumo shrines scattered around Japan. Okuninushi-no-Kami is enshrined here as well, and the shrine’s matchmaking powers are said to be at their strongest in November, when all Shibnto gods are believed to gather in Izumo to convene and decide upon the fates of we humans. In keeping with Izumo-taisha’s status as a famous enmusubi shrine, you’ll see plenty of entwined rope imagery, such as the massive braid above the space to offer prayers outside the main hall.

But do enmusubi temples really boost your chances of finding love? In Happy Mail’s survey, about 27 percent of the respondents who said they’d made an enmusubi shrine visit said they felt like they’d had a subsequent improvement in their interpersonal relationships, in some cases manifesting as their first serious relationship in half a decade or even getting married. Of course, it’s a tricky business pinpointing exactly what is and isn’t luck in love, as odds are if you’re making a trip to an enmusubi shrine, you’re probably also taking other steps to start or deepen a romantic relationship. Still, a little supposedly divine assistance can’t hurt, and if that little boost of confidence adds an extra spring in your step and helps you put your best self forward in the dating scene, while also letting you experience a part of traditional Japanese culture, an enmusubi shrine visit seems well worth making.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Tokyo Daijingu, SoraNews24, Yasaka Shrine, Izumo-taisha, Pakutaso
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