Recorded Joy·Rakuchū / Gosho-minami

Site of Shoshoi (Shoshoi Otabisho)

The Shōshoi Otabisho is said to have been one of the resting places to which a Gion Festival mikoshi, the Shōshoi portable shrine, was carried. According to the "Shake Jōjō Kiroku," a four-chō plot at Reizei-Higashinotōin was donated in 1136 to establish it, and the shrine is said to have been set upon the well-curb of the Shōshoi to ward off epidemics. The well that gave the place its name is listed among the celebrated wells of Heian-kyō in "The Pillow Book," and is said to have stood at the home of the nun-poet Shōshoi-no-Ama. In 1591 Toyotomi Hideyoshi merged it with the Ōmandokoro Otabisho and moved it to the Shijō Otabisho. The Tennō shrine later built on the site was itself moved to Munakata Shrine in the Kyoto Imperial Park in 1877, and the well now leaves no trace above ground.

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These notes come from desk research. Local traditions vary.