Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Middle Gate and Norito Hall

What the Middle Gate and Norito Hall Are

The Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Middle Gate and Norito Hall (出雲大神宮本殿中門及び祝詞舎, Izumo Daijingū Honden Chūmon oyobi Noritosha) in Chitose-cho, Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture, is a gate and prayer pavilion built in 1934 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on February 4, 2021.

The single-storey timber structure is roofed entirely in Hiwadabuki cypress bark and covers 27 square meters. The gate stands directly behind the worship hall, and the norito hall is joined to its back. Norito are the formal prayers a priest reads before the deity, and this is where he stands to read them.

Worship hall, middle gate and norito hall, and main hall follow one another on a single line, forming the spine of the Izumo Daijingu precinct.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Izumo Daijingu middle gate and norito hall as a place of worship in the Wayō manner, the native Japanese building style, with details that deliberately recall older forms. It is registered as No. 26-0615 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

It belongs to an early Showa building campaign: the shrine office in 1931, this gate and pavilion in 1934, the corridors in 1935. Those years gave the approach to the main hall its present shape, and roofing the new work in the same bark as the fourteenth-century sanctuary tied old and new together.

How Gate and Pavilion Fit Together

The middle gate is a Shikyakumon, a gate with four auxiliary posts set before and behind the two main pillars. The shrine describes its roof as a plain gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) with the entrance on the long side.

The norito hall borrows the gate's rear pillars and extends two bays toward the main hall, open on every side. With no walls, the priest stays under cover while facing the sanctuary directly.

On the side toward the main hall the eaves rise into a Noki-karahafu, a gently curved gable. Seen from an angle, that curve sits behind the straight lines of the gate roof, and the contrast is the thing to look for at the Izumo Daijingu middle gate.

Seeing the Gate and Norito Hall

The Izumo Daijingu middle gate and norito hall stand immediately behind the worship hall and cannot be passed through. The gate front is visible from beside the worship hall, and from outside the openwork fence you can catch the norito hall roof and part of the curved gable at an angle.

Access and visiting conditions are on the Izumo Daijingu Shrine page.