Cute heart shape at Japanese Toka Ebisu Festival [movie]

On January 10th, I found "Hearts" at the precincts of Hokoku shrine in Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture during Toka Ebisu festival.

 

Although they look like nothing but western heart shape, they are respectable traditional Japanese design called “Inome” (the word “Ino “ is a short name for wild boars and “me” means eyes in Japanese). As its name suggests, the name comes from a shape of boars’ eye and it has a wish for the magic of the beast’s eye to protect us.

 

From now on, every time I visit old buildings, I am pretty sure that I will look for hearts…

 

“Inome” which I found at a building (I am not sure of its official name) located by the side of the entrance gate (called "Torii") to the main hall.

 

The same as above

 

There was an inome on a lantern at the side of the main hall.
Furthermore, the board that is attached to under the roof has an interesting name, "Gegyo".

 

T.S