A Registered Building With a Quarter-Square-Metre Footprint
The Main Hall of Shushi Shrine (泊神社末社種子神社本殿, Tomari-jinja massha Shushi-jinja honden), a subsidiary shrine standing within the precincts of Tomari Shrine at Kimura, Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, was built during the Meiji era and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008. Kakogawa City records the reading of the sub-shrine's name as Shushi.
Its measurements are worth reading twice. The front is 0.45 metres wide. The depth is 0.55 metres. Building area: 0.25 square metres. That is smaller than most office desks, and it is difficult to name many buildings on Japan's national register with a smaller footprint.
Yet it is a building, not a votive object. It has a plinth, columns, brackets, a roof structure and a floor, all made the way a full-sized shrine hall is made, at roughly a sixth of the scale. The roof is sheathed in copper plate.
Find it south of the Sumiyoshi subsidiary hall, facing east.
Ikkensha Nagare Misedana-zukuri, Explained
The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the hall as ikkensha nagare misedana-zukuri, three terms stacked together. Each one is doing work.
Ikkensha means the sanctuary is one bay wide, the smallest standard module in shrine architecture. Nagare-zukuri is the most widespread Japanese shrine roof form: a simple gable in which the front slope runs on past the wall and continues forward to shelter the approach, so the roof looks asymmetrical in profile. Misedana-zukuri is the part specific to small shrines. Instead of steps leading up to a raised floor, the space between the sanctuary and the front canopy is built out as a shelf-like platform, comparable to the display shelf of an old shop front, which is where the name comes from.
That platform is the practical heart of the design. Offerings are set on it, and the priest can attend the shrine standing at ground level rather than climbing to it. Small shrines all over Japan use the form for the same reason.
The Agency's entry notes that the Shushi hall is close to the neighbouring Sumiyoshi hall in scale, in form and in the carved decorative patterning known as ezama, and concludes that the two were probably put up as one commission. The Sumiyoshi hall, described in more detail in the same records, sets its sanctuary columns and canopy columns on a timber sill, closes the sanctuary front with a pair of hinged doors and boards the sides and back, and builds the gap between sanctuary and canopy up as a two-tier shelf. Its canopy uses three-block bracketing and the sanctuary a large bearing block with a bracket arm. The Shushi hall can be read alongside it.
The Row of Small Shrines
Registration documents for this hall end on a point about landscape rather than about the building. West and north of Tomari Shrine's main hall, a great many small shrines stand in a line, and the Agency's commentary credits that grouping with creating a rich precinct scene.
Walking it takes a few minutes. The little halls vary in date, in roof material and in how much carving they were given: copper plate here, sheet iron there, a gable that appears to be a nagare roof with its forward slope cut back. The nearby Kumano subsidiary hall, 0.44 metres across the front and roofed in iron plate, is the clearest example of that clipped profile. Each was built by somebody, for a reason, in a particular decade. The Meiji-era pair sits inside a sequence that had been accumulating for generations.
The sequence began well before them. Tomari Shrine's main hall and kagura hall were rebuilt in 1653 at the expense of Miyamoto Iori, adopted son of the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who by then held high office under the Ogasawara house. Eight buildings at the shrine were registered together in 2008, and the two Meiji sub-shrine halls represent the last stage of ordinary, unhurried addition before the drum storehouse of 1936 closed the series.
One practical note for photographers: at 45 centimetres wide, this hall does not read at all in a wide shot of the precinct. Get low, get close, and let the copper roof and the shelf front fill the frame.
Visiting
The precinct is open and free to walk at any reasonable hour. All the small halls, this one included, are viewed from outside; their interiors are sanctuaries and are not opened. Nothing is roped off, so the usual courtesies apply: do not touch, do not lean on the plinths, and step back during rites.
JR Kakogawa Station is about 1.5 kilometres northeast, close to twenty minutes on foot. Kako Bus and Shinki Bus both stop at Inaya, two minutes from the torii, and there is parking at the shrine front. Enquiries go to the shrine office on 079-422-4813.
Photography of the exteriors is unrestricted under ordinary circumstances. Since the hall faces east, morning light lands on its front; by late afternoon the whole row is in shade.
Anyone who has come this far should also look at the 1653 main hall, its front canopy topped by an ornamental curved gable, and at the noh stage south of the kagura hall.
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Q&A
- Where is the Main Hall of Shushi Shrine at Tomari Shrine, and how do I find it?
- It stands in the precincts of Tomari Shrine at 658 Kimura, Kakogawacho, Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, immediately south of the Sumiyoshi subsidiary hall and facing east, among the small shrines west and north of the main hall. The shrine is about twenty minutes on foot from JR Kakogawa Station, or two minutes from the Inaya bus stop.
- How big is the Main Hall of Shushi Shrine at Tomari Shrine?
- The front measures 0.45 metres and the depth 0.55 metres, giving a building area of 0.25 square metres. It is a single-storey timber structure with a copper plate roof. Its small size is why visitors often walk past without registering that it is a listed building.
- What does ikkensha nagare misedana-zukuri mean for the Shushi subsidiary hall at Tomari Shrine?
- It means a one-bay sanctuary under a gable roof whose front slope extends forward over the approach, with the space between sanctuary and front canopy built out as a shelf-like platform instead of a flight of steps. The form is standard for small shrines because it lets offerings be presented from ground level.
- When was the Main Hall of Shushi Shrine at Tomari Shrine built and registered?
- It dates from the Meiji era, recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database with a span of 1868 to 1911. Registration took effect on 18 April 2008 and was notified on 7 May of that year, in the 59th round; the registration number is 28-0352.
- Can I look inside the Shushi subsidiary hall at Tomari Shrine, and may I photograph it?
- The interior is a sanctuary and is not opened to visitors. Viewing and photographing the exterior from the precinct is unrestricted in ordinary circumstances, at no charge, though it is polite to pause during rites and to keep worshippers out of frame.
Basic Information
| Name | Main Hall of Shushi Shrine, subsidiary shrine of Tomari Shrine (泊神社末社種子神社本殿) |
|---|---|
| Location | 658 Kimura, Kakogawacho, Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 28-0352; criterion: contribution to the historic character of the landscape |
| Year Designated | Registered 18 April 2008; notified 7 May 2008 (59th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Front 0.45 m, depth 0.55 m; building area 0.25 m²; single-storey timber, copper plate roof; ikkensha nagare misedana-zukuri |
| Owner | Tomari Shrine (religious corporation) |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing only, from the open precinct; no admission fee; interior closed. Shrine office: 079-422-4813 |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Main Hall of Shushi Shrine, subsidiary shrine of Tomari Shrine
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007096
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Main Hall of Sumiyoshi Shrine, subsidiary shrine of Tomari Shrine
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007095
- Kakogawa City Board of Education: Tomari Shrine, eight nationally registered cultural properties
- https://www.city.kakogawa.lg.jp/soshikikarasagasu/kyouiku/kakuka/kyoikushidobu/bunkazai_cyosa/bunkazai/kunitourokukaisetu/kunitourokutomarijinjakaisetu.html
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Main Hall of Kumano Shrine, subsidiary shrine of Tomari Shrine
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007094
- Kakogawa Tourism Association: Tomari Shrine
- https://kako-navi.jp/spot/18919.html
Last verified: 2026.08.27