Why you shouldn’t visit Japanese shrines at night  

Imagine this. You have been walking around the city of Kyoto all day long, battling the heat, your feet and the masses of people. You even got that one shot of the one street with the one pagoda everyone posts on their Instagram, and, most importantly, you only offended about three Kyoto citizens, which is an amazingly low number. So, an overall successful day. There’s just that one shrine you wanted to go to. It has been on your bucket list all this time, but after having a delicious dinner, it’s already getting dark outside, but, then again, it is your last day in Kyoto. So, there’s no harm going there now, or is there? 

I also found this tip above on reddit. I get it. It is so tempting to beat the crowds and get those pictures that you will most likely never look at again, but going to a shrine during the evening or at night is actually considered a bad and disrespectful thing. In the worst case, some say, it can be dangerous, and maybe not in the way you think it is. 
A little side note: This information is mostly from Japanese blog entries I found online.

The obvious reason

The obvious reason why you shouldn’t visit a shrine at night is because it can be physically dangerous. Shrines usually don’t have a set closing time, but that does by no means mean there’s going to be a light installed. There might be stairs, or cobblestone and you might actually trip and fall. Another aspect is related to animals. Japan is home to wild boars, monkeys and bears. Meeting one of those at night might not be good, or fun for that matter. Some Shrines are located in forests, on mountains or simply are surrounded by nature. Japanese forests are way thicker than you may think and nature can get wild quite quickly, so you shouldn’t underestimate it.

Also, please do not cross gates or ropes that specifically close the shrine, but that should be common sense.

But there’s more. There’s a spiritual aspect, as well. Firstly, a kami (essentially a Shintō deity) isn’t a God in the way we are taught. (If you’re asking what is a kami? A little guide to Shintō: Kami)

After a long day of wish granting and listening to prayers, a kami, too, needs to rest. So, visiting their shrine at night and disturbing their peace? That’s a rude thing to do. Also, while resting the kami’s divine energy might not be as strong, so not useful good for your wish-granting or prayer in general. 

丑三つ時 (ushimitsu-doki)

Another aspect is tied to the concepts of yin and yang (陰陽 / in-yō in Japanese), adopted from Chinese Philosophy. Yang is connected to the sun, warmth, brightness, movement, life, visible, active and masculine. Yin pretty much means the exact opposite, so the moon, the night, the cold, the calm, the hidden, passive, spirit world and feminine. 

At night yang turns into yin quite naturally, as the sun falls and the moon rises. And with all that is attributed to yin, you can probably guess that ghosts are deeply connected to it, too. So, at night they are the most powerful, as there’s less and less yang to oppose it. The space between our world and the spirit world gets thinner and thinner until it reaches its thinnest point, when the yin is at its strongest between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., 丑三つ時 ushimitsu-doki, the third quarter of the hour of the ox. 

This is also the time most ghost stories take place in general, not just at shrines. Shrines however, are seen as in-between worlds and therefore attract more spirits.

So, the legends say, you might run into a wandering spirit at a shrine. At the same time, they are places of energy, both negative and positive, pure and impure. (Because people ‘leave behind’ the negativity). This negative energy becomes way more active at night and it can even attach itself to you, leading to bad luck, or worse things.

When entering a shrine at night you yourself might bring impurities into the shrine due to the fear and confusion you might feel, which is basically the single thing you shouldn’t do in Shintoism. This is also the reason why you’re not supposed to visit shrines when bleeding (both from wounds and during your period, if you’re sick or if you’re mourning).

Okay, okay, you might say now, but I wasn’t planning on going to a shrine at 2 in the morning anyways. I was thinking just at sun-down.

逢魔時(oumagatoki)

I hate to tell you, that is exactly as bad. At least, if you believe the folklore. Dusk is the time called 逢魔時(oumagatoki), meaning literally 逢: meeting, tryst, date, rendezvous; 魔: witch, demon, evil spirit and 時: time, hour. So, the time you meet demons. (This applies everywhere, by the way, not just shrines.) Shinto is all about the transitions of places, might it be bridges, or rivers, the inside and outside of a city, the beginning and end of a path, the start of the night, the passing of the day, the passing of our world into the spirit world. In these liminal spaces the borders get blurry, so encountering a ghost or yōkai becomes way more likely.

And as shrines are already somewhere in-between our world and the world of gods, a liminal space, this is even more prevalent, as mentioned above.

This is why even going earlier, at dusk, is not recommended. I don’t assume you want to take a ghost with you back home, do you?

This is also why most Shrine offices close when the sun goes down, so it depends on the season.

There’s also another time when you might avoid going to a shrine at night:
神無月 (meaning the month without gods), but that’s another story.

Recommended Visiting Hours

So when should you go? First of all, there are times when going to a shrine at night is actually encouraged. If there are festivities like Obon or New Years, then you’re obviously more than welcome to go and enjoy the atmosphere. And, if you want to have a good time to pray, apparently from the morning up to maybe 3 to 5 (depending on the season) is best. Maybe the kami are early-birds, who knows?

What about temples?

For Buddhist temples the rules are a bit different. A Buddhist temple isn’t the “home of a deity” like a Shrine is in Shinto, and more so a place of reflection, prayer and stillness. Still, going at night is discouraged if you aren’t part of an event or temple stay. I didn’t find an actual reason, but I’m guessing because sometimes you have graveyards etc. close by and it probably also just feels wrong. Similarly to how we might find it weird to enter our places of worship at night. No one ever forbade me from entering a church at night, but would I do it? Probably not. It just feels wrong. And it is just a little bit spooky.

.₊˚.✦₊૮₍ ´• ˕ • ₎ა ♡‧₊˚ ✩‧₊˚ ✧˚₊‧₊˚ ૮꒰˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶꒱ა ✩₊˚.

I want to finish this post by saying this: I understand how these spiritual aspects might not be important to people who aren’t involved with Shintoism. However, I do urge everyone coming to Japan to understand that for some people, it is a holy and spiritual place and you entering said place because you want a cool experience or good pictures is simply disrespectful. Obviously, not everyone in Japan will think that way, but once again, think about your own places of worship. Would you be comfortable with someone entering these spaces at night? How would you want them to behave if they do? These simple questions might help you understand and figure out for yourself how far you want to venture.