Kamigamo Shrine — officially Kamowake-ikazuchi-jinja — is the older of the two great shrines dedicated to the deity Kamo of the Thunder, founded in 678 in a meadow on the northern edge of the Kyoto basin. The grounds are large and contain a small river crossed by stone bridges and lined with white-walled buildings; in particular two precisely formed cones of pure sand, the tatesuna, stand in front of the inner shrine — a stylised representation of the sacred mountain (Mount Kō) on which the deity is said to have first descended.
Adjoining the shrine to the east is Shake-machi, a row of preserved priestly houses (shake) from the Edo period, set behind hedges and small water channels — one of the most atmospheric residential streets in Kyoto. Kamigamo is inscribed by UNESCO together with its sister shrine Shimogamo and the other historic monuments of ancient Kyoto. The horse races (Kamo Kurabeuma) on 5 May are an unusual surviving Heian-period pageant.