While the history of this small shrine close to Kyoto Station and hemmed in between buildings is a little prosaic, the stories surrounding it are anything but. The best place to start is probably the name. Doso (道祖) literally means “road ancestor” and the compound is more commonly found in DosoJin (道祖神) than in Doso Jinja. The Dosojin is regarded as the tutelary kami protecting local borders and they can often be found in stone carvings at rural village boundaries and at urban street crossings. As shown in the one in this shrine they often feature a married couple. The male is probably Sarutahiko, the Kami who when Ninigi was about to descend to earth appeared at the eight-forking road of heaven and effectively blocked Ninigi’s descent; he is thus regarded as tutelary Kami protecting local borders. The female is probably Ameno-uzume-Mikoto, the Kami who was dispatched from heaven to find out what Sarutahiko was doing; they later became man and wife.

Two of the three in-ground shrines, Sainokami-Yashiro and Shosei Tenman-Gu, merit a comment. The interest in the first of these comes from different readings of the kanji in the name. As mentioned above, Sarutahiko blocked Ninigi’s descent to earth at the eight-forking road of heaven. The Japanese word saigiru (遮る) can mean toobstruct someone’s way, as in Sarutahiko obstructing Ninigi’s descent;  the “saigi” in saigiru was somehow transliterated into sachi(幸), which means happiness and is also read as sai, thus Saurutahiko becomes Sai-no-Kami (幸の神), the Kami of Happiness and by extension the Kami of Marital Bliss.
Next to the Shosei Tenman-Gu is a stone carving describing it as one of the 25 Tenman-Gu in Kyoto (洛陽二十五社) thought to be the most closely connected to Sugawara Michizane, the Kami to whom all Tenman-Gu are dedicated.  However, is is no longer included in the list.