Nishinomiya Shrine Main Hall

Japan's Only Triple Kasuga-Style Main Hall

The Nishinomiya Shrine Main Hall (西宮神社本殿) is a timber main hall completed in 1961 at Nishinomiya Shrine in Shakecho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, which in 2025 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a single-storey timber building with a copper roof and a building area of 100 square metres, registered as a model of design.

The Agency calls it the only triple kasuga-style shrine building in Japan, a postwar reconstruction of the former main hall lost in the war.

Structure

According to the Agency, three kasuga-style sanctuaries, each with a front aisle, are joined side by side by connecting spaces to form one large building, roofed in copper.

The brackets are carved bearing blocks and bracket arms, a single continuous roof runs down over the front aisles, and hip rafters are set at both ends.

What to Look For

The shrine notes that the triple kasuga form is rare and is also called the Nishinomiya style. The main hall built by Tokugawa Ietsuna in 1663 was destroyed in the war in 1945 and rebuilt as before in 1961, except that copper replaced the cypress-bark roof.

From the worship hall, the three sanctuaries line up ahead: Ebisu in the first on the right, Amaterasu and Okuninushi in the second at the centre, and Susanoo in the third on the left.

Visiting

The main hall stands behind the worship hall and is venerated from there.

The shrine's history, the layout of the grounds, directions and opening hours are on the Nishinomiya Shrine group page.