S P O T ／ SPOT-026

Shirataka Ōkami Abandoned Shrine

白高大神廃神社しらたかおおかみはいじんじゃ

In a residential neighborhood of Nara City, down a narrow lane that gives no indication of what lies ahead, a small pond complex opens into what was once the head shrine of a new religious movement founded in the Meiji period by a spirit medium named Nakai Shigeno. Her "Tamahime Kyōkai" (Princess Soul Church) was an independent Shinto movement that drew followers for decades before declining, leaving behind a complex of concrete-reinforced sacred pools, a small waterfall, and a collection of unusual deities — White Dragon, Old Woman, and others of uncertain canonical status — whose stone markers still stand among the vegetation. The atmosphere of a once-visited and now-forgotten sacred place is exceptionally strong here, amplified by the site's position inside an otherwise normal neighborhood: the transition from suburban street to overgrown shrine precinct takes about twelve steps and crosses a temporal distance of roughly a century. This is Nara Prefecture's most widely cited haunted site, though its appeal to those without supernatural interests is considerable.