The university and its neighboring community worked together to create this back alley art space. Alleys are not typically thought of as a place to make art, let alone a place to gather at all -- you usually imagine an alley as a dark, narrow, and scary place. By creating this plaza space they turned the standard idea of an alley upside down. However, as time passed, this place slowly became forgotten. Just take a look at a photo from a few years ago and you can see how much back alleys can change without anyone really noticing.

By the way, there used to be an alley called “Yumiya Yakushi” a little while back that connected the Yumiya-chō and Yakushi-chō neighborhoods. Yumiya-cho was known for producing bows and arrows, which are called “yumiya” in Japanese, but the neighborhood was actually inhabited by “Inu-jinin”, low-ranking priests who appeared to be poor but actually had quite a bit of wealth from making bows and arrows. Whether by coincidence or not, Yumiya-chō is actually 3 times bigger than the surrounding areas. If you pay attention when you walk around you can actually see signs everywhere attesting to the prosperity of the area.

But that’s not where the story ends. The “Inu-jinin” not only made archery ranges but were also employed at Yasaka Shrine. Their jobs included cleaning and security, and they would also help set up and manage communities for lepers as well as help with the burial rites for the deceased.

Would you be surprised to hear that these low-ranking priests also had the high honor of leading the procession of portable shrines at the auspicious Gion Festival? These figures worked every day to cleanse the impurities found between the worlds of the living and the dead, so naturally they were also entrusted with the duty of purifying the pathway of the gods.