A woman with a parasol was walking along the approach to the elongated Jiyugaoka Kumano Shrine

As one moves through the fashionable streets of Jiyugaoka, a space thickly covered with trees suddenly appears. There are two possibilities when a place with trees like this appears in a densely built-up area in Tokyo. One is a mansion. Even in Tokyo, which is often derided as a place where only small houses are built, there are people with extraordinary wealth who build huge houses. Such mansions often have large gardens and large trees. Another possibility is shrines and temples. Even though the grounds of many shrines and temples are smaller than they used to be, there are still some that have large grounds with a glove for their shrine and temple.

The dense space that appeared in Jiyugaoka was the latter. It was the Jiyugaoka Kumano Shrine. The history of the shrine in this fashionable commercial district is long, and according to one theory, it was founded before the Kamakura period (1185-1333). If the shrine has been in existence for that long, it must have witnessed the rise of Jiyugaoka in the modern era. The location of the shrine, now called Jiyugaoka, was once called Fusuma-Mura. Jiyugaoka gives a fashionable impression, but I wonder how many people would have had a fashionable impression if it had been in Fusuma-mura. Jiyugaoka, which has changed its name, changed its atmosphere, and completely transformed itself into a fashionable commercial area, may be like a person who has undergone cosmetic surgery from the shrine's point of view.

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