Isaniwa Shrine

Four buildings raised in 1667 on the hill above Dogo

Isaniwa Shrine (伊佐爾波神社) stands in Sakuradani-cho, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, and its four surviving buildings of 1667, the Main Hall, the Moshidono with its corridor, the Tower Gate and the Cloister, were designated an Important Cultural Property in 1967.

The designation arrived in two stages. The Main Hall was listed on its own in 1956. In 1967 the Agency for Cultural Affairs concluded that the Moshidono and corridor, the Tower Gate and the Cloister all dated from the same 1667 campaign and belonged to the same enclosure, and relisted the group as four buildings. Attached to the designation are 1 openwork fence, 2 subsidiary shrine halls, 2 stone lanterns and 1 ridge tablet (Munafuda).

Isaniwa Shrine appears in the Engishiki register of court ritual, so the institution is far older than its buildings. Ehime Prefecture records that it once stood where Dogo Park is today, and that the warlord Kono Michimori moved it to the present hill during the Kenmu era, between 1334 and 1338, to clear ground for Yuzuki Castle.

An archery bet, and a roof shingled in two halves

The shrine's own account of the 1667 buildings begins with a wager of reputation. In 1662 Matsudaira Sadanaga, third lord of the Matsuyama domain, was summoned to shoot at a target inside Edo Castle before assembled daimyo. He had a reputation as an archer and a great deal to lose. He prayed at what was then called Yuzuki Hachimangu, promising a hall built to match Iwashimizu Hachimangu in Kyoto if he hit the mark. Shrine tradition says a golden dove rose in front of him as he drew, that he loosed the arrow and struck the target, and that he then brought carpenters from Hida to build what stands here. The work was finished in 1667.

What they built is hachiman-zukuri, and this is the point on which Isaniwa Shrine rests its reputation. In this arrangement the Main Hall is not one volume but two, standing one behind the other and joined by a linking bay, with the roof shingled as two separate slopes rather than one continuous plane. The shrine describes the front hall as the outer sanctuary and the rear hall as the inner sanctuary (Naijin); Ehime Prefecture uses the older pair of terms, front hall and rear hall, for the same two structures. Readers comparing sources should treat the two vocabularies as describing the same building.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives both halls as 9 Ken along the front and 2 ken in depth. The rear hall is gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) and roofed in cypress bark (Hiwadabuki); the front hall uses the flowing Nagare-zukuri roof with three projecting canopies (Kōhai) and the same cypress bark. The shrine states that complete examples of hachiman-zukuri survive in only three places in Japan, and it counts itself among them.

Walking the enclosure, gate to sanctuary

The approach to Isaniwa Shrine climbs. From the road below, the Tower Gate is what you see first, a single-bay, single-doorway gate with a hip-and-gable roof (Irimoya-zukuri) in heavy ceramic tile (Hongawarabuki), fronted by a one-bay canopy with a curved Chinese gable. A plaque reading Hachimangu hangs under the eaves on the front face.

Through the gate, the Cloister opens left and right and runs 57 ken in total length by 1 ken deep, hip-and-gable roofed and tiled like the gate, with the south and north gateways each given their own curved canopy. It encloses the sanctuary on all four sides. Guardian figures sit at the two entrances. Because the Cloister wraps the buildings completely, you can read the Main Hall from several angles without ever entering it, which is the practical reason the layout rewards a slow circuit rather than a straight walk to the front.

Between Cloister and Main Hall sits the Moshidono, 1 ken square, gabled and cypress-bark roofed, with projecting three-block bracket sets (Kumimono) and frog-leg struts (Kaerumata) in the intervals above them. A corridor 3 ken by 1 ken runs forward from it, entered at the gable end and joined to the Moshidono at its rear.

Detail rewards attention at the Main Hall. Three shrine bays stand side by side, each with its own steps and doors, and a pair of guardian lions flanks the central flight. Carved and brightly pigmented beams (Kōryō) span between the body of the hall and the canopy columns. Along the roofline are carvings of celestial musicians and heavenly women.

The Cloister also holds Isaniwa Shrine's other well-known collection: 22 sangaku, wooden tablets inscribed with problems in wasan, the mathematics developed in Japan during the closed-country centuries. Devotees hung them to give thanks for a solved problem or to advertise a school's methods. Matsuyama City notes that no other single shrine in Japan retains so many in one place, and that these follow the Seki school founded by Seki Takakazu. They run from 1803 to 1937 and were designated a prefectural tangible folk cultural property in 2005. The shrine states that some have deteriorated badly and that only photographs are now shown, the originals being kept from display.

Visiting

By tram, ride to the Dogo Onsen terminus of the Matsuyama city line, then walk up the slope in front of the station for about 5 minutes; the shrine's own directions describe exactly this route. A flight of stone steps climbs to the gate at the end of it, so the last stretch is a climb rather than a stroll, and it is worth wearing shoes that suit wet stone in rain.

Drivers take the Kawauchi interchange on the Matsuyama Expressway and follow the Matsuyama-Kawauchi prefectural road for about 30 minutes. There are 57 parking spaces behind the shrine buildings, 30 seconds on foot from the precinct. Between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. worshippers park free for 1 hour, taking a ticket from the machine on entry and inserting it at the payment unit on the way out; within the free period the gate opens without payment.

The precinct is open and can be visited at any hour. Isaniwa Shrine does not publish reception hours for prayers or seals on its website, so telephone the shrine office on 089-947-7447 if you need them. No public notice describes access to the interiors of the designated buildings.

Photography is permitted, with conditions the shrine sets out in writing. Pay your respects before you start shooting. Do not occupy the centre of the approach for long periods. Bubbles and noise-making toys are not allowed. Bridal photography by parties not holding their ceremony here is refused on days when a wedding is booked. The shrine reserves the right to stop a shoot that ignores these rules.