安産

Childbirth & Children

Anzan prayers for safe childbirth and conception: choosing a day, who can enter Suitengu's prayer hall, and the Buddhist alternative at Kiyomizu-dera.

These are places where this concern is part of the site’s own tradition. Practices differ between shrines and temples, and some shrines have their own sequence. Read the place’s own advice below and our guide to shrine and temple worship before visiting.

Choose a place and a day

Suitengu in Tokyo centres its worship on pregnancy and childbirth. Its traditional reference point is an inu no hi, a Day of the Dog, in the fifth month of pregnancy. This zodiac day recurs every twelve days. The association with easy births is a belief behind the custom, not a promise about an individual pregnancy.

The shrine explicitly welcomes choosing another day to suit how the expectant mother feels and the family's plans. Some families receive the prayer beforehand and mark the Day of the Dog with the maternity sash at home. Use Suitengu's official calendar below; you do not need to rearrange a journey around a supposedly compulsory date.

Suitengu: who can enter the prayer hall?

Safe-birth prayers are accepted on the day, without advance reservations. Reception is 8:00–15:00; the first service starts at 9:15, or 8:30 on a Day of the Dog. Reception time and ceremony time are different.

Weekday Day of the Dog: the expectant mother and one accompanying adult.
Weekend or public-holiday Day of the Dog: the expectant mother only among adults.
Other days: up to six adults.

Children may accompany the group. Seat provision is limited, and the shrine may change arrangements with crowding. Read the current official notice before setting out; being in the grounds does not mean every family member can enter the hall.

At the dog statue

The kodakara-inu depicts a mother dog and puppy surrounded by zodiac symbols. Suitengu's precinct guide describes stroking your own birth-year symbol in connection with prayers for childbirth, conception and children's growth. Its Day of the Dog page also describes stroking the dog itself while praying. Both appear in the shrine's guidance. Follow the instructions at the statue.

Kyoto: a Buddhist place of prayer

Kiyomizu-dera's official precinct guide identifies Taisan-ji, beside the Koyasu Pagoda, as a place for conception and safe-birth prayers. For worship of Kannon in Kiyomizu-dera's Main Hall, the temple shows a bow, an offering and quietly joined palms. Use the temple's guidance rather than transferring a shrine's clapping sequence. The Kiyomizu-dera entry below covers access and current visiting arrangements.

Sources

This page draws on the following sources, most of them in Japanese. Details checked: 2026-09-05.

Where to go

Heian Jingu Shrine

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A 5:8-scale reconstruction of Kyoto's ancient State Hall, where the shrine courtyard is free and the four landscape gardens are a separate visit.

Hie Shrine

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A hilltop shrine in Nagatacho where the stairs, the escalator and the paired sacred monkeys are all part of the visit.

Kamigamo Shrine

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Kyoto's upper Kamo shrine, where two sand cones mark the mountain's presence and a paid inner-court visit changes what you can actually see.

Nezu Shrine

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A richly carved Edo-period shrine where a red-torii path, a separate Inari shrine and a working counter each ask you to slow down.

Nonomiya Shrine

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A black-wood torii at the start of Sagano, where the shrine's own route ends at a turtle stone after separate prayers to each local deity.

Shimogamo Shrine

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A shrine reached through a twelve-hectare forest, where the most specific way to pray for a bond involves walking the same small shrine three times.

Suitengu

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Tokyo's shrine for safe childbirth, rebuilt in 2016 as a base-isolated modern structure raised above a car park — nothing about it looks the way visitors expect.

To-ji Temple

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Kyoto's last surviving trace of Heian-kyō, where a free visit to Kūkai's home and a paid three-dimensional mandala are two different experiences.

Yasaka Shrine

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Gion's open-all-night shrine, where the gate, the prayer office and the seal desk each keep a different clock.

Kiyomizu-dera

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The stage is uncovered again, the love stones inside have been shut since 2022, and the queue at the waterfall is arguing about something the temple has answered in two different places.

Zōjō-ji Temple

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A Jōdo temple where the route from the old gate to the Amida hall, the Tokugawa graves and the seal counter are three different visits.