Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine

The Eight Buildings Around the Main Shrine

Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine (石清水八幡宮) is a group of branch-shrine halls and outer gates of the Momoyama to early Edo periods (1601 to around 1643) in Yawata and Hashimoto Toganoo, Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on December 2, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records 8 buildings designated as one property: the main halls of 5 branch shrines (Wakamiya, Wakamiyaden, Mizuwakamiya, Sumiyoshi and Toganoo) and 3 outer gates (east, west and north); designation number 00020.

Five Branch-Shrine Halls and Three Gates

According to the Agency's commentary, the main halls of the Wakamiya, Wakamiyaden, Mizuwakamiya and Sumiyoshi branch shrines around the main shrine, and the east, west and north outer gates, were built at the same time as the main shrine buildings of 1634; the Agency dates them to around 1624 to 1643.

The Wakamiya hall is a hie-style building 5 bays by 4 with a one-bay porch. The Wakamiyaden hall, 3 bays by 2, has a hip-and-gable roof and a three-bay porch. The Mizuwakamiya and Sumiyoshi halls are one-bay nagare-style buildings, and all are roofed in cypress bark (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The three outer gates are four-legged gates with tiled roofs.

The Toganoo branch shrine stands in a detached part of the precinct about 1 kilometre west of the main shrine. Its main hall is a three-bay nagare-style building roofed in cypress bark, surrounded by a fence (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Yawata City). Built in 1601, it is the oldest shrine building in the precinct (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency notes that the Wakamiya, Wakamiyaden and Toganoo halls are important for tracing how the shrine's building forms developed, and that, with the Mizuwakamiya and Sumiyoshi halls and the three outer gates of the same period, they convey the layout of the precinct at the start of the early modern era. It designated the eight buildings as an Important Cultural Property.

What to Look For

Look at how the branch-shrine halls around the main shrine each take a different form, hie, hip-and-gable and nagare (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to Yawata City, the Toganoo hall was under repair from November 2021, with completion planned for October 2024; its exterior is mainly red-painted, with the bracketing and carved struts of the eaves picked out in bright colours.

Visiting

The eight buildings are owned by Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Toganoo shrine lies in a detached precinct, and no official visiting information for it was found. Opening hours and access are covered on the Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine group page.