Kenkun Shrine

A Shrine to Oda Nobunaga on Mount Funaoka

Kenkun Shrine (建勲神社, formally read Takeisao Jinja) is a Shinto shrine on Mount Funaoka in Murasakino Kitafunaoka-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto City, founded in 1869 on the order of Emperor Meiji, and eleven of its buildings and structures were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 18, 2008. It enshrines the warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534 to 1582), with his eldest son Oda Nobutada as a secondary deity. Locals mostly call it Kenkun Jinja, or simply Kenkun-san.

A year after the founding, in 1870, the court granted the divine title Takeisao, written with the characters for "build" and "merit." The shrine's own account ties the honour to Nobunaga's role in ending the civil wars of the sixteenth century and restoring the rites of the imperial court, which had fallen into near collapse. In 1875 the shrine was raised to the rank of bekkaku kanpeisha, a class of state-supported shrines created for loyal historical figures, and was granted Mount Funaoka as its site.

The hill was not an arbitrary choice. After Nobunaga died at Honnoji in 1582, Toyotomi Hideyoshi held a seven-day memorial service for him at nearby Daitokuji and began a temple on Funaoka to house his likeness. Emperor Ogimachi even granted it a name, Tenshoji, but the work was never finished. According to the shrine, the hill was kept as ground sacred to Nobunaga from then until the Meiji era.

The present complex took shape in two stages. New shrine buildings went up at the foot of the hill in 1880, when Nobutada was added as a deity. Thirty years later, in 1910, the main hall and the buildings around it were dismantled and re-erected on the summit. That is why the government records for most of the Kenkun Shrine buildings give two dates: 1880 for construction and 1910 for relocation.

Eleven Registered Structures, Three Building Periods

The eleven items registered in 2008 are the main hall, worship hall, norito hall, connecting corridor, lattice fence, offering hall, ritual vessel storehouse, purification pavilion, guest house, shrine office and great torii gate. Their registration numbers run consecutively from 26-0280 to 26-0290, and all belong to the religious corporation of Kenkun Shrine.

Two different criteria were applied. The main hall and the worship hall were registered as buildings that serve as models of design; the other nine were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. In effect, the two core buildings were judged on their own architecture and the rest as the fabric of a hilltop precinct.

Line up the dates in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and the precinct turns out to be layered. The main hall, worship hall, norito hall, corridor and guest house were built in 1880 and moved up in 1910. The offering hall dates from 1884 and was moved in the same year. The lattice fence around the main hall was new in 1910. The purification pavilion is an 1880 structure that was not relocated until 1922; the storehouse was moved in 1929, the year the present shrine office was built.

The youngest piece is the great torii of 1934, a myojin-style gateway of unpainted cypress from Mount Alishan in Taiwan, 7.2 m tall and 5.5 m wide.

How Kenkun Shrine Is Laid Out

Mount Funaoka is a low, boat-shaped hill 112 m above sea level, rising about 45 m above the surrounding streets on its southeast side. Kenkun Shrine occupies that southeast flank; the northwest side is Funaokayama Park, run by the city. The shrine notes that the hill is said to have served as the northern reference point when the Heian capital was laid out in the late eighth century.

The main entrance is the great torii at the eastern foot of the hill, facing east onto Funaoka-higashi-dori. A stone stairway climbs from there, passing the guest house and, along the approach south of it, a stone inscribed with lines from the ballad Atsumori, which Nobunaga is said to have danced before riding out to the battle of Okehazama in 1560. A second path, the north approach, enters from the other side of the hill.

On the summit the shrine buildings line up along an east to west axis. Nearest the arriving visitor is the open-sided worship hall; behind it stand the norito hall, the short corridor, and finally the east-facing main hall, enclosed by a lattice fence 55 m long. The offering hall sits south of the fence, turned to face the main hall. The purification pavilion lies southeast of the worship hall, the storehouse to its northeast, and the shrine office east of that, joined by a passage to the guest house.

The natural sequence is to climb from the torii, rinse your hands at the pavilion and stand before the worship hall. Looking west from there, the roofs of the norito hall and the cypress-bark roof of the main hall overlap one behind the other. Turn around and the view opens east across the city to Mount Hiei and Mount Daimonji. Smaller shrines within the grounds include Gisho Inari, Myobu Motomiya and Funaoka Myoken, the last dedicated to the guardian deity of the hill.

Festivals at Kenkun Shrine

The annual festival of Kenkun Shrine falls on July 1, the modern calendar equivalent of the day of the Honnoji Incident in 1582.

The bigger public occasion is the Funaoka Taisai on October 19, beginning at 11:00 a.m. and marking the day the Takeisao title was granted. The Atsumori dance and bugaku court music are offered, and in some years treasures are displayed or matchlock guns demonstrated. Parishioners from the Nishijin weaving district below the hill turn out in numbers.

The summer purification rite with its grass ring is held in front of the great torii on June 30, and the Ohitaki fire festival inside the torii on November 23. If you want the buildings to yourself, avoid these dates.

Visiting Kenkun Shrine and Getting There

The grounds of Kenkun Shrine are open for worship, and the shrine's website lists no admission fee. The shrine office and amulet counter are staffed from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Formal prayers and ceremonies are accepted from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the shrine asks that you telephone in advance. Lighting on the hill is limited, so take care after dark.

Smoking, eating and drinking (other than water from your own bottle) and bringing pets are not permitted in the grounds. Drones and commercial photography require the shrine's permission.

From Kyoto Station, take the Karasuma subway line to Kitaoji, about 15 minutes. At the Kitaoji Bus Terminal, use the blue stop for Kinkakuji and Daitokuji and board city bus 1, Kita 8, M1, 204, 205 or 206. Get off after about 6 minutes at Kenkun Jinja-mae; the shrine is about 9 minutes on foot from the stop.

There is no parking at the shrine, so drivers should use a nearby coin car park. Bicycles and motorbikes can be left in the space directly inside the great torii at the east entrance.