What wakishōji means
A wakishōji is a boarded screen set at the rear end of the veranda running along the side of a shrine sanctuary or similar building. The veranda usually runs across the front and down both sides but not along the back, and the wakishōji stands where each side veranda ends, closing it off.
Despite the word shōji, it is not a paper-covered sliding screen but a boarded panel like a free-standing partition; the name reflects an older use of shōji for partitions in general. Its surface is often carved or painted, and on lavish early modern shrines it is one of the decorative highlights.
Reading the records and the building
Records mention it together with the veranda. The sanctuary of Nogi Shrine in Fushimi, Kyoto, three bays square with a gable-entry hip-and-gable copper roof and a one-bay canopy, has verandas on three sides with wakishōji, and a frog-leg strut carrying two blocks between the canopy posts. The sanctuary of Umi Hachimangu in Umi, Fukuoka, a hip-and-gable cypress-bark building with a one-bay canopy, is described as a large, lavish shrine with a railed veranda all round and wakishōji.
On site, follow the side veranda of the sanctuary to its end and look for a boarded screen there. Any carving on it also helps in reading the design of the building.
References
- 乃木神社本殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015318
- 宇美八幡宮本殿（福岡県宇美町の文化財一覧）｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/region/40/40341
Last verified: 2026.09.27