Kenkun Shrine Office

A Hip-and-Gable Office Built in 1929

Kenkun Shrine Office (建勲神社社務所, Takeisao Jinja Shamusho) is a single-storey timber shrine office facing south within the grounds on Mount Funaoka in Kita-ku, Kyoto City; it was built in 1929 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 18, 2008. It has a building area of 77 m² and is still the working office of the shrine.

Of the eleven registered structures, only three were built new on their present sites rather than moved up from the foot of the hill: the office, the lattice fence and the great torii. The storehouse was moved in the same year, 1929, so about twenty years after the shrine buildings were carried uphill in 1910, the precinct acquired its administrative and storage facilities.

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes its light appearance, with a tall main storey carrying a modest roof.

A Shingled Porch and Three Rooms

The Kenkun Shrine Office has an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof in Sangawara-buki pantiles, with a Kokerabuki canopy, roofed in thin overlapping wood shingles, over the front entrance only. Pairing a tiled main roof with a timber canopy singles out the entrance as the face of the building.

The plan spreads either side of the entrance. An earth-floored entry sits a little east of centre; to its east is the former night-duty room, to its west the office, and beyond that the former chief priest's room. The word "former" comes from the official description, which records these as the original uses, so a room for the priest on night watch and the chief priest's room once flanked the working office.

What the official description stresses is proportion. The height to the head of the openings is generous, so walls and fittings are tall, while the roof above is kept small. The result reads as light rather than heavy.

Joined to the Guest House

The Kenkun Shrine Office is linked by a passage to the Meiji-era guest house. The shrine's precinct guide places it east of the storehouse, at the northernmost end of the guest house, facing south; the national database describes it as northwest of the guest house.

The guest house dates from 1880 and the office from 1929, nearly fifty years apart. One building was for receiving guests, the other for daily business, and a passage makes them a single working group.

Tiled main roof, shingled porch, tall openings: the office's character is concentrated on its south front, which is where to look.

Visiting the Kenkun Shrine Office

The Kenkun Shrine Office is in daily use. According to the shrine, the office and amulet counter are staffed from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the building serves as the working office of the shrine. The website gives no information on tours of the interior.

The exterior can be seen from the grounds. The shrine does not forbid personal photography, but drones and commercial shoots need permission. Keep photography brief so as not to hold up people using the counter. Directions to the shrine and general visiting conditions are covered on the Kenkun Shrine page.