Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall

What the Main Hall Is

The Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall (出雲大神宮本殿, Izumo Daijingū Honden) in Chitose-cho, Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture, is an early Muromachi-period sanctuary dated to 1346 and designated an Important Cultural Property on April 14, 1906.

It is a three-bay building in the Nagare-zukuri style, the most common form of Japanese shrine architecture, in which the front slope of the roof sweeps forward to shelter worshippers. The roof is thick Hiwadabuki, layered cypress bark. The shrine gives its floor area as just under fourteen tsubo, roughly 46 square meters.

The Izumo Daijingu main hall stands at the far end of the shrine's central axis, behind the worship hall, the middle gate and the norito hall, facing south with the sacred Mount Mikage rising close behind it.

Dating and Significance

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Izumo Daijingu main hall to 1346. The shrine says contemporary records show Ashikaga Takauji, founder of the Muromachi shogunate, had it rebuilt either in the Gentoku era at the end of the Kamakura period or in 1345. The one-year gap is noted here; this article follows the Agency.

According to the shrine, three Munafuda, the ridge tablets that record building work, have come to light in recent years. One, dated the 26th day of the 11th month of 1445, names a patron styled Ukyo no Daibu of the Minamoto line, and the shrine suggests a link with Hosokawa Katsumoto, the shogunate's deputy who held that title.

The designation of 1906 was made under the old Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law and carried over into today's Important Cultural Property status. The hall was restored in 2009.

Plan and What to Look For

Inside, the Izumo Daijingu main hall is divided so that each space is more sacred than the one before. A one-bay porch (Kōhai) projects at the front; the front aisle serves as the outer sanctuary, and the core (moya) is split into an inner and an innermost sanctuary.

A veranda with a railing (Kōran) runs around the outer and inner sanctuaries. On each side, a screen panel set at the middle post stops the veranda, and the rear half of the core has no veranda at all. From the side you can see exactly where the walkway ends and the plain wall begins.

The small Kami-no-Yashiro shrine up the hill copies this arrangement at reduced scale, and comparing where the side screens fall on each building is a quick way to see the relationship.

Seeing the Main Hall

The Izumo Daijingu main hall stands inside the middle gate and the openwork fence, and visitors cannot enter the enclosure or the interior. From in front of the worship hall you see the porch and roof through the gate; walking along the fence shows the side veranda and screen panels.

The curve of the bark roof reads best from the east side of the fence. Access and visiting conditions for the shrine are covered on the Izumo Daijingu Shrine page.