Kotohira Shrine Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate

What Is the Kotohira Shrine Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate?

The Kotohira Shrine Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate (金刀比羅宮表書院及び四脚門, Kotohira-gū Omote-shoin oyobi Shikyakumon) is a reception hall and gate built between 1654 and 1660 in the grounds of Kotohira Shrine in Kotohira Town, Kagawa Prefecture; the hall was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1955 and the gate in 1982.

The designation covers 2 buildings. The Omoteshoin is a single-storey hall measuring 21.7 meters by 16.9 meters, with a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri roof of cypress bark and a cusped Noki-karahafu gable over the front eaves. The Four-Legged Gate stands directly in front of it under a gabled roof of clay tiles.

Before the Meiji era the mountain was the Buddhist-Shinto site of Konpira Daigongen, run by a temple superior, the bettō of Konkōin. The Omoteshoin was Konkōin's guest hall, used for ceremonies and for receiving visiting worshippers. The shrine's own tradition dates it to the Manji era, 1658 to 1660.

Why the Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate Are Important Cultural Properties

The Omoteshoin keeps the formal shoin layout of a high-ranking reception hall from the Daigongen period, and five of its rooms still hold sliding-door and wall paintings by Maruyama Ōkyo, designated alongside the building. According to the shrine, Ōkyo painted them late in life, between the 1780s and 1790s, in Kyoto, with funding from the merchant Mitsui family.

The gate was added to the designation in 1982. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as part of the same scheme as the hall: a well-proportioned, high-quality four-legged gate, notable for its raised coffered ceiling (oriage gōtenjō) and its pierced openwork carving.

Ōkyo is not the only painter here. The Meiji history painter Murata Tanryō decorated the two Fuji rooms, and the entrance hall carries an eagle on a cypress by Mori Kansai, so the walk through the Kotohira Shrine Omoteshoin moves from late Edo brushwork into the Meiji era room by room.

What to Look For at the Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate

Step through the Shamusho Gate and the Four-Legged Gate is straight ahead. Stop beneath it and look up: the stepped coffered ceiling and the carved panels are far more elaborate than the gate's modest size suggests. Through the opening you see the bark roof of the Omoteshoin and the curve of its front gable layered behind.

Inside, the rooms run in sequence: the Crane Room, the Tiger Room, the Room of the Seven Sages, the Landscape Room and the raised Jōdan no Ma. The tigers in the Tiger Room are known as the "water-drinking tiger", after the animal shown drinking. In the Jōdan no Ma, the most formal room, a waterfall pours down the wall facing the seat of honor. Murata Tanryō's Mount Fuji and hunting scenes fill the two Fuji rooms.

A garden called the Rinsen lies alongside the rooms. On May 5 and July 7, kemari, the courtly ball game, is played as an offering in the front garden of the Omoteshoin.

Visiting the Kotohira Shrine Omoteshoin and Four-Legged Gate

The Omoteshoin is open to the public as one of the shrine's museum facilities, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with last entry at 4:30 p.m. Admission is 800 yen for adults and 400 yen for high school and university students; junior high school students and younger enter free (checked October 2026). A combined ticket also covers the Treasure Museum and the Takahashi Yuichi Museum. Opening days are posted on the shrine's museum calendar, and there are occasional closures.

The entrance is the Shamusho Gate, past the Takahashi Yuichi Museum on the stone-paved stretch above the Great Gate. A floor plan on the shrine's website shows which rooms visitors can enter. The website does not state whether photography is allowed inside; it was banned during the 2023 special exhibition, so ask at the ticket desk. Directions and general shrine hours are on the Kotohira Shrine page.