Shimogamo-jinja

The broad gravel approach to Shimogamo Jinja runs straight into Tadasu no Mori, a forest older than Kyoto itself, and the proof is underfoot. Soil surveys here have found fossil pollen from the same kinds of tree that covered the plain before the capital was built, and excavation has turned up Yayoi-period house floors. Hear why a court once forbade the felling of this wood, and find the pond where a famous dumpling is said to have begun.