Kenkun Shrine Ceremony Vessel Storehouse

Kenkun Shrine Ceremony Vessel Storehouse: a plastered strongroom for sacred implements

Every shrine keeps things out of sight. Behind the halls where rites are performed lie the vessels, stands and implements that a ceremony calls for, and they need somewhere dry and secure to wait between festivals. At Kenkun Shrine on Mount Funaoka in northern Kyoto, that role falls to the Ceremony Vessel Storehouse, or Saikiko, which stands to the north-east of the worship hall.

The shrine itself honours Oda Nobunaga and his son Nobutada, and took its place on Funaoka through the Meiji years. The storehouse was first built in 1880 (Meiji 13), the year the halls were completed on the hill, and was moved to its current position later, in 1929 (Showa 4). It is a two-story building of dozo construction, the thick earthen-walled method long used in Japan for fire-resistant storage, and it faces south beneath a hip-and-gable roof laid with formal round-and-flat tiling. This roof sits as a separate cover set over the structure, an arrangement known as okiyane.

Because the ground slopes, the doorway is placed at the upper, second-floor level, reached beneath a one-bay eave. The outer walls carry a lime-plaster finish. The eave over the entrance is tiled with pantiles, and the pillar lines are expressed on the surface and then plastered smoothly in, a small flourish typical of well-made storehouses. Windows sheltered by their own eaves punctuate the sides and rear.

Why it is protected

The Saikiko is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, a lighter form of national protection than the designation given to National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. Introduced in 1996, the register was meant to safeguard the large body of modern buildings that might otherwise vanish before their worth was recognised. The storehouse was entered on 18 April 2008, in the fifty-ninth round, under the criterion that it contributes to the historic character of the national landscape.

A storehouse rarely draws the eye the way a sanctuary does, yet it is part of what makes a shrine function, and its survival matters for exactly that reason. The dozo technique it embodies is a distinct strand of Japanese building, prized for keeping fire, damp and thieves at bay. Standing among the other registered structures on Funaoka, the Saikiko rounds out the picture of a complete Meiji shrine precinct, from the sanctuary down to the practical outbuildings.

What to look for on a visit

Come to the north-east of the worship hall and the storehouse reads at once as something built to last: heavy plastered walls, a solid tiled roof, few openings. Look for the way the second floor holds the entrance, a response to the fall of the ground rather than a stylistic whim, and for the plastered pillar lines and the little eaved windows that keep the plain box from feeling severe.

Like the other buildings here, the Saikiko is a working part of the shrine and is not opened for interior visits, so it is appreciated from outside. The grounds are free to enter. The front approach climbs a long stair that grows steep toward the top, with a gentler northern route as an alternative. Those interested in the shrine's ritual year can aim for 19 October, when the Funaoka Taisai fills the precinct with the ceremonies for which vessels like these are brought out.