Sasayama Shrine

A Shrine to the Arima Lords on the Kurume Castle Keep Site

Sasayama Shrine (篠山神社, Sasayama-jinja) is a Shinto shrine on the site of the main enclosure of Kurume Castle in Sasayama-machi, Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and four of its structures built in 1879, the main hall, worship hall, middle gate and lattice fence, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 31, 2022. Kurume Castle itself has long been known by the alternative name Sasayama Castle, which is where the shrine takes its name.

The shrine honors five members of the Arima family, the daimyo who governed the Kurume Domain through the Edo period: Toyouji, the first lord; Yoriyuki, the seventh lord and a noted mathematician in the Japanese wasan tradition; Yoritō, the tenth lord and a reformer; Yorishige, the eleventh and last lord; and Yoriyasu, the fourteenth family head, whose name lives on in the Arima Kinen horse race.

According to Sasayama Shrine's own history, it began in 1877 when former retainers and people of the old domain enshrined Toyouji and Yoritō. The domain had been torn by factional conflict at the end of the shogunate and saw government troops sent in during the early Meiji years, and the shrine describes its founding as a prayer for recovery and calm after that upheaval.

From Castle Palace to Sacred Ground

Sasayama Shrine stands on a rise on the left bank of the Chikugo River, where the river swings through a wide bend. Kurume City's heritage material explains that Arima Toyouji, who arrived in 1621 from Fukuchiyama in Tanba with a domain assessed at 210,000 koku, turned the castle to face south instead of east and added a second bailey, third bailey and outer compound in a line below the main enclosure. That main enclosure sat on stone walls about 15 meters high, ringed by seven turrets and long tamon-yagura galleries, with the lord's palace in the middle.

The Arima family held the castle for eleven generations, roughly 250 years. After it was decommissioned in 1871 the buildings were sold, and by 1875 every one had been taken down. What survives on the main enclosure today is the masonry and the inner moat along the front; the ground where the lower baileys once stretched south, as far as the present city hall, is now part of the town.

In 1879 the buildings of Sasayama Shrine rose on the empty enclosure. The main hall and worship hall were renovated in 1930, and the middle gate and fence around the same time. The spot where the lords once ran their domain became the precinct where they are honored.

The Four Registered Structures and How to Walk Them

Four structures at Sasayama Shrine are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties: the main hall, the worship hall, the middle gate and the lattice fence. The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended them on July 22, 2022, and they were entered in the register on October 31 of that year under the consecutive numbers 40-0200 to 40-0203, all four recorded as built in 1879.

All four face south and line up on the north-south axis of the grounds. The main hall stands farthest back, to the north, and the worship hall sits about 40 meters in front of it. The middle gate is roughly halfway between them, and the fence runs out from both sides of the gate to enclose the main hall in a rectangle 13 ken east to west and 17 ken north to south. The main hall thus occupies a raised inner precinct set apart by stonework and fence.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered them under two different criteria. The main hall, worship hall and middle gate were judged to be models of form, while the fence alone was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The council's summary praised the group as a whole for building a distinctly modern shrine precinct around a large main sanctuary.

A good route is to come up into the enclosure from the south entrance and stop first in front of the worship hall. Behind it the low roof of the middle gate is visible, with the great roof of the main hall rising beyond. Then walk around to the west side of the grounds, where the fence runs long on its stone base and the inner precinct shows through the gaps in its vertical lattice.

Festivals at Sasayama Shrine

The best known event at Sasayama Shrine is the Suzumushi Festival on the fourth Saturday of August. Paper lanterns go up in the afternoon, and after the evening rite, a lantern procession and a performance of Arima oshidaiko drumming, bell crickets are released into the grounds. The annual grand festivals fall on April 3 and September 29, when thick matcha is offered in the worship hall; attendance is by invitation.

About 49 cherry trees grow on the old enclosure, and from late March into early April the stone walls and moat are framed in blossom. A music festival organized by a local council is held each year in late March on the site of the castle palace, just east of the shrine buildings.

Getting to Sasayama Shrine and Visiting

Sasayama Shrine is about a 15-minute walk from JR Kurume Station. By bus, take Nishitetsu Bus routes 3, 6, 8, 9, 24 or 52 from JR or Nishitetsu Kurume Station to the Daigaku Byoin (University Hospital) stop, then walk 3 to 5 minutes. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Kurume Interchange on the Kyushu Expressway.

There is parking for about 15 cars: roughly 7 in the turning circle inside the grounds, reached by driving up from the south entrance, and about 8 in the east lot below the stone wall.

There is no admission charge to visit the shrine grounds. The shrine office is staffed from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the gates close at 5:00 p.m. The Arima Memorial Museum, which displays material associated with the Arima family, stands in the southeast part of the old enclosure.

All four registered structures remain in active ritual use. On an ordinary visit they are seen from outside, and the only interior visitors normally enter is the worship hall, during prayer ceremonies. What to look for at each building, and the viewing conditions that apply to it, are covered on the individual pages.