ゲストハウス庵（いおり）大阪 は大阪府羽曳野市の北西端にあり、当館から北または西へ少し歩くと、お隣の松原市です。また、当館と目と鼻の先にある、日本で五番目の大きさを誇る大塚山古墳も、東半分は羽曳野市、西半分は松原市に属しています。そんな松原市には、新年に「松原六社巡り」なるものがあるということで、六社を巡ってきました！
まず、この六社巡り、特定の六つの神社の中のどの神社から始めてもいいですし、どんな順番で巡ってもいいとのこと。最初に行った神社で六社巡り用の絵馬を買い求め、それから訪れた神社で絵馬に参拝印を押してもらい、六社すべて巡ったあと、最初の神社に戻って絵馬を見せると、何かがもらえるというものです。
六社それぞれ個性的でおもしろかったです。私が巡った順に、阿保神社、我堂八幡宮、布忍神社、阿麻美許曽神社、屯倉神社、そして柴籬神社の六社ですが、今こうしてタイプするのも一苦労、読みにくい個性的な名前の神社ばかりです！
まず、阿保神社。これは「あお」と読み、この地域の地名と同名の神社です。この神社の境内には、社殿の前、右後ろ、左後ろにそれぞれ、大きな楠があり、中でも社殿に向かって左後ろの楠は樹齢千百年以上らしく、木の幹が太いのはもちろんのこと、根がせりあがって伸びていて圧巻です！また、社殿の中、お賽銭箱のある位置から上を見上げると、天井に正方形の小さな絵がいくつも描かれており、お寺ではなく神社で天井画が描かれているのは珍しいとのことです。ちなみに、阿保神社の隣にはお寺があり、向かいには銭湯があります。♨
次に、我堂八幡宮。これは「がどう」と読み、松原市の西側、堺市寄りにあります。八幡宮という名の通り、本殿は赤く、そのほかにも祠がいくつもありました。
我堂八幡宮の近くに、布忍神社があります。これは「ぬのせ」と読み、近鉄南大阪線に布忍という駅もあります。この地名はかなり古いらしく、かなり古い文献にその名が見受けられるそうです。
さて、この布忍神社に着くと、それまでの二つの神社とは大きく違い、入口に警備員さんが二人おられ、クルマや人を誘導していました。神社の前には川が流れ、ちょうど鳥居の前に橋が架かっているのですが、その橋が赤く、参道を成していました。そして、これまた他の神社とは違い、この神社は参拝客でいっぱい！しかも、若者が沢山いました。この神社は、ユニークな「恋みくじ」で有名なのです。
布忍神社を出たあとは、神社の前の道を北上して北上して、松原市と大阪市を隔てる大和川の手前の阿麻美許曽神社へ。これも読めませんね。これは「あまみこそ」と読みます。この神社の祭神のひとりが、素戔嗚尊（スサノオノミコト）で、ここでおしてもらった参拝印も素戔嗚尊の名前と絵でした。もうひとつ、この神社の非常に面白い点が、ここはいわゆる飛び地で、大和川の南にあるのに、この区画だけ大阪市に属していて、大阪市東住吉区矢田でした。同じ道路上の向かいの家々は松原市天美（あまみ）なのです！
そこから南東へと移動し、屯倉神社へ。これも読めますか？「みやけ」と読みます。意外にもパソコンで「みやけ」と打って「屯倉」と変換できたので、認知された読み方なのでしょうか。ここは敷地が広く、祠の数も多く、境内に洋風なベンチがいくつか置いてあったのが印象的でした。
そして六つ目の芝籬神社。これは「しばがき」と読みます。ここは日本で唯一の歯の神社らしいです。境内に歯を見せて大きく笑っている顔の石像があり、参拝印もこの顔でした。
そして、最初の阿保神社へ。そこで参拝印の揃った絵馬を見せると、中に何かが入った白い紙袋を手渡されました。中身を出してみると、今年の干支であるネズミのミニチュアでした。かわいいです。絵馬と一緒にゲストハウス庵に飾りました。
Guest House Ioly Osaka is located in the northwest end of Habikino City, Osaka, and just a few minutes' walk to either north or west will take you to the neighbouring city of Matsubara. Also, the nearest kofun from the Guest House is Japan's fifth largest and the east half of it belongs to Habikino and the west half belongs to Matsubara. I learned that the City of Matsubara has this thing called 'Matsubara Six Shrine Pilgrimage', so I did that.
With it, you have to visit all of the six specific shrines, but you can start with any one of them, and you can go in any order. You obtain an ema, a wooden board, and at each shrine you visit, you get your ema stamped. After you visit all the six shrines, you go back to the first one and show them your complete ema, and they'll give you something.
Each of them was quite different from each other and it was really interesting to visit them. Some of them have such unique kanji letters for their names that it's almost impossible to read them right.
The first one I visited was called Ao Shrine. It has three huge trees and one of them is over 1100 years old! Its trunk is really big, of course, but its roots have come up to the surface of the ground and you could tell it was really old! The main building of the shrine has some pictures on the ceiling and they say it is rare for a shrine, not a temple, to have them. There's a temple next to the shrine, and across from the shrine is a public bath.♨
Then I travelled west to Gado Hachimangu. This was closer to Sakai City. As the name 'Hachimangu' suggests, the main building was red and the roof was anti-arched, and there were other smaller shrines, there, too.
Not too far from Gado Hachimangu was Nunose Shrine. The name Nunose is really old, and it appears in a really old document. There's also a train station called Nunose. As I approached the shrine, I could feel that this one was very different from the other two; two guards were standing outside the torii gate and guiding the cars and visitors. There was a river flowing in front of the shrine, and right in front of the torii gate was a red bridge that was the route to the shrine. This shrine was also different in that it had lots of visitors, most of whom were young, and I guessed they were here for the unique love fortune paper they were famous for.
After I left Nunose Shrine, I travelled up and up north close to Amamikoso Shrine, which is on the border between Matsubara City and Osaka City, where the Yamato River runs. One of the gods at the shrine is Susanoonomikoto, one of the gods in the very early period of the country, and the stamp I got here had a picture of him and the writing of his name in it. This place is really unique because it’s an exclave of Osaka City, although it belongs to the south of the river, so it's inside Matsubara City but it belongs to Osaka City, and the address plate says Osaka, while the address plate on the other side of the same road says Matsubara!
Then I travelled southeast to Miyake Shrine. Its land was large, and it had quite a few smaller shrines other than the main building. It was unique and impressive that it had some benches in the location.
Finally the sixth one: Shibagaki Shrine. This is apparently the only shrine in Japan that's good for teeth. There's a statue of a man's face with a big smile showing off his neat teeth here, and the stamp I got here was a picture of the same man!
Then I got back to the first shrine, Ao. I showed my ema with the six stamps on it to the lady there, and she handed me a little white paper bag. I took out what was inside, and it was a miniature of the year's animal, mouse! It's cute! It's now displayed in Guest House Ioly together with the ema.
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