What a tabasami is
A tabasami is a triangular panel filling the angle between a Kōhai column and the Kōryō above it. It answers a structural need, but it is treated as a place for carving.
Records name it among the carved elements of a canopy. Asao Shrine in Nagano Prefecture, built in 1859, is described as a single-bay Nagare-zukuri hall under copper sheet, with double rows of closely spaced Taruki, a Kirime-en on three sides with side screens, steps and a low veranda, a strongly curved Ebi-kōryō carrying the canopy, wave-patterned lattice doors at the front, an interior divided between inner and outer areas, and rich carving on the canopy beam and these panels.
The beam spanning between the canopy columns carries the panels at each of its ends, so the two are carved as one composition.
They display a carpenter's skill. The main hall of Sansho Shrine in Kagawa Prefecture, built in 1830, is described as having carved fascia boards, these panels and projecting beam ends all worked in the round with fine craft and vigour, showing the ability of the carpenters of the Shiwaku islands.
Its place among the carvings
The worship hall at the same shrine, built in 1897, is described as showing skill in the carving of its canopy beam, its Kaerumata, these panels and the canopy generally, and is valued as a work from the last period of those carpenters. Beam, strut and panel are named together, because the carving of a shrine front concentrates in those three.
They come in pairs, one filling each angle beside a column, and the designs answer one another. Looking up from directly in front, both panels appear beneath the beam.
Where Oigata flank the Taiheizuka of a gable, these fill the angle between column and beam at the canopy. Both occupy leftover corners, and both attract carving.
On site, look up at the canopy from the front. A roughly triangular carved panel set where the column meets the horizontal member is the feature.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties (structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/kokuho_bunkazai.html
- National Cultural Properties Database: Asao Shrine, richly carved brackets beneath the canopy beam
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014363
- National Cultural Properties Database: Sansho Shrine Main Hall, carved fascia boards and canopy brackets of fine workmanship
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014413
- National Cultural Properties Database: Sansho Shrine worship hall, skill shown in the carving of its beams, struts and canopy brackets
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014414
Last verified: 2026.09.11