Hachiman Shrine Main Hall

The Shrine Where the Oldest Record of Shochu Was Found

The Hachiman Shrine Main Hall (八幡神社本殿) is a late Muromachi main hall at Hachiman Shrine, also called Koriyama Hachiman Shrine, in Oguchi Ota, Isa City, Kagoshima Prefecture, which in 1949 was designated an Important Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a single-storey hall three bays square with a hip-and-gable shingled roof and a one-bay porch, designated with an inner shrine, and owned by Hachiman Shrine.

The Agency gives its date as 1559.

Structure

The Agency records a hip-and-gable hall three bays by three with a one-bay porch at the front and a shingled roof.

An inner shrine enshrined inside is designated with the hall.

What to Look For

Isa City relates that the shrine is said to have been founded in 1194 by Hishikari Shigetae, founder of the Hishikari clan, and that the present hall was rebuilt in 1507 by Shimazu Dewa-no-kami.

During repairs in 1954, carpenters' graffiti dated 1559 was found on a tie beam of the northeast post, complaining that the head priest never once offered them shochu. Isa City calls it the oldest written record of the word shochu in Japan, the reason Isa is called the birthplace of shochu.

Visiting the Hachiman Shrine Main Hall

No official information on visiting conditions could be found. The Kagoshima Shrine Association lists festivals on 5 May, 19 September and 23 November.

Enquiries go to the Isa City board of education.