Kenkun Shrine Guest House

A Reception Hall East of the Worship Hall

Kenkun Shrine Guest House (建勲神社貴賓館, Takeisao Jinja Kihinkan) is a single-storey timber reception hall standing east of the worship hall on Mount Funaoka in Kita-ku, Kyoto City; it was built at the foot of the hill in 1880, moved to its present site in 1910, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 18, 2008. With a building area of 82 m², it is the largest of the registered structures at the shrine for which an area is recorded.

A kihinkan is a hall for receiving distinguished guests at ceremonies and visits. This one belongs to the same 1880 construction as the main hall and worship hall and was moved up the hill with them in 1910. It stands off the central axis, but in the history of the precinct it is part of the original core.

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it an elegant modern building in Japanese style, set where it looks from the north of Kyoto across to the Higashiyama hills.

A North-South Main Block and a West-Facing Porch

The main block of the Kenkun Shrine Guest House has an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof with its ridge running north to south, covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles. It measures 3.5 bays by 4.5 bays. The main hall and worship hall are roofed in cypress bark; the guest house is tiled. The building for the gods and the building for people are separated by their roofing.

On the west side is a gabled carriage porch, also tiled, projecting in front of the entrance. Its roof has a gentle mukuri, swelling slightly outward along its slope. Because the guest house lies east of the worship hall, the porch faces back toward the worship hall, into the precinct rather than out of it.

A veranda runs along the south, east and west sides, finished with hanekoran, railings whose ends curl upward at the corners. It is a shrine detail brought onto a residential-style building.

An Eastern Outlook and a Link to the Office

Of the three verandas, the eastern one faces the view from Mount Funaoka. The shrine notes that Mount Hiei, Mount Daimonji and the other Higashiyama peaks can be seen from its grounds, and the guest house opens a veranda toward that view.

The Kenkun Shrine Guest House is joined by a passage to the shrine office, built in 1929. A Meiji hall and an early Showa office, put up nearly fifty years apart, work as one connected group.

Along the main approach to the south stands a stone carved with lines from the ballad Atsumori, which Nobunaga is said to have danced before the battle of Okehazama. The guest house stands to the north of the stone.

Visiting the Kenkun Shrine Guest House

The shrine website gives no standing information about opening the Kenkun Shrine Guest House to visitors, so plan on seeing the exterior from the grounds. The curved roof of the west porch and the upturned railings are visible from the precinct side.

The shrine does not forbid personal photography, but drones and commercial shoots need permission. The building connects to the working shrine office, so look around without getting in the way of shrine business. Directions to the shrine and general visiting conditions are covered on the Kenkun Shrine page.