What kitsure-goshi means
Kitsure-goshi is a form of gable decoration in which the triangular face at the gable is filled with a grid of slender vertical and horizontal members backed by boards. It is also called kitsune-goshi. The mesh is fine, and from a distance the gable appears covered in a lattice pattern.
It is used chiefly on hip-and-gable roofs. In that roof type the upper part takes the form of a gable, and its triangle shows inside the bargeboards. Kitsure-goshi fills and finishes that triangle, and a common arrangement hangs a carved pendant, the Gegyo, from the bargeboards with the lattice face visible behind it. It appears on shrine and temple buildings and on the formal hip-and-gable roofs of well-appointed houses.
Other gable treatments differ in how they handle the triangle. Inoko-sasu exposes two inclined members and a post, and the single-post type described under Taiheizuka stands one large post on a beam; both compose the triangle from lines of timber. Kitsure-goshi instead fills the whole face with lattice.
Reading the records and the building
Records state simply that the gable decoration is kitsure-goshi. The worship hall and the offering hall of Kojinyama Shrine are both recorded as hip-and-gable, pantile-roofed buildings with this gable treatment, and the record for the offering hall adds that it forms a unified shrine group with the worship hall. The record for the small hip-and-gable prayer hall of Anyoin names its kitsure-goshi gable and its latticed windows as signs of careful design.
Buildings in one precinct can use different gable treatments. At Kojinyama the gabled main sanctuary has inoko-sasu, while the hip-and-gable worship and offering halls have kitsure-goshi, a useful example of how roof form and gable decoration go together.
On site, look up at a hip-and-gable roof from an angle and study the triangle behind the bargeboards. A fine grid indicates kitsure-goshi. Repairs sometimes replace the lattice with plain boards, and paint can hide the grid, so photographs and records are worth comparing.
References
- 荒神山神社拝殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011519
- 荒神山神社神饌所｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011521
- 安養院礼拝堂｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002408
Last verified: 2026.09.26