Nikkō, Japan - Nikkō is a city in the Tochigi Prefecture in Japan. The picture shows a fountain right near the Iemitsu Shrine which dates back to the year 767. This picture is around 100 years old.
Japanese Alps, Japan - The Japanese Alps bisect the main island of Honshu. In this picture, you can see a Japanese Shrine within the forrest of the Japanese Alps. The picture is around 100 years old.
Haruna Shrine, near Lake Chūzenji, Japan - Haruna Shrine or rather Temple in the forrest, probably close to the Lake Chūzenji. This picture is around 100 years old.
Bridge in Kameido Tenjin Shrine, Tokyo - View on the “drum bridge" (famous for its rolling form) in the area of Tokyo’s Kameido Tenjin Shrine which is dated back to 1662. Still today, this place is famous to view wisteria, a flowering plant with origins in Japan, China and Korea. This picture is around 100 years old.
Tokyo, Japan - Whorshippers at the Shinto Shrine. The Japanese origin 神社 (jinja) comes from the term “Place of the Gods”. This picture is around 100 years old
Nikkō in Tochigi prefecture, Japan - View of the main portal of Nikkō Tōshō-gū, which is a Shintō-Shrine in the city of Nikkō, built in 1617. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu. This picture is around 100 years old, and shows besides the main portal also Japanese citizen (mainly women) in their typical national dress.
“þeir er hǫrg ok hof hátimbroðo” “Shrines and temples they timbered high” - Völuspá
A horg (Old Norse “hǫrgr”) is a sacrificial site or a form of altar in pre-Christian times in the Nordic countries and which roughly refers to a "stone pile".
In the poem Hyndluljóð, the goddess Frøya (Freyja) speaks favorably of Ottar (Óttar) for having worshiped her so faithfully by using a horg. Frøya details that the horg is constructed of a heap of stones and that Ottar often reddened these stones with sacrificial blood in dedication to her. Snorre Sturlason states that the horg is used in the veneration of the Åsynjene (female gods).
In the poem Vafþrúðnismál, it is also stated that many a horg and hov were dedicated to Njord (Njörðr).
A horg is considered different to a hov (from the Old Norse hof), commonly called a “temple”. A rough simplification is that horg were for outdoor rituals and hov for indoors worship.
Many modern day heathens within Scandinavia continue to use a stone set as a focal point for rituals conducted outdoors to this day.
Medea, you are a sainted woman amongst men; a savior, a champion of the broken and beaten down. You are righteous fury and just vengeance. And it was also by you that all our art was made possible, so it is you, Medea, whom I honor as hero.
