Kitano Tenmangu Shrine

Four Parts in One Designation, National Treasure since 1959

Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮) at Bakuro-cho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, had its main hall, stone chamber, worship hall and music rooms designated a National Treasure on 27 June 1959. They had become an Important Cultural Property on 28 December 1897. The owner is Kitano Tenmangu.

Four parts stand in the name of the designation: main hall, stone chamber, worship hall, music rooms. This is not one building but several parts taken together.

By Kyoto City's list of designated properties, sixty-two years passed between the earlier listing and the change to National Treasure.

The Stone Chamber Joins Hall to Hall

The relation among the four parts follows the order of the name.

The stone chamber stands between the main hall and the worship hall and joins them, and the music rooms adjoin the worship hall on either side. Some parts stand between; others attach at the sides.

The stone chamber has its floor laid one step lower than the halls on either side. Its name comes from having originally been an earth floor.

Two centres, main hall and worship hall, are linked by a part with a lower floor. This arrangement is known as the gongen style, also called the stone-chamber style.

The abbot's quarters at Nanzenji joined two parts into one building and the founder's hall at Eihoji three. Here four parts stand together in the designation.

Built in 1607

The present shrine buildings were raised in 1607 by Toyotomi Hideyori. Kitano Tenmangu describes them as a surviving work of Momoyama building.

More than 350 years passed between that building and the National Treasure listing, sixty-two of them as an Important Cultural Property.

Other structures in the precinct carry designations of their own. By Kyoto City's list, the corridors on the left and right, the rear gate, the middle gate, the openwork fences on the left and right, and the east gate are each Important Cultural Properties.

Two wing walls are designated as appendages to the middle gate, and six ridge tablets as appendages to the openwork fences. Things attached to a building are recorded separately in each case.

The four parts covered here and the corridors and gates are separate designations. This article covers the former.

Bare Timber, with Color on the Carving

The treatment of the exterior is distinctive as well.

The outside is mainly bare timber, with color applied to the carving, such as the frog-leg struts. The whole is unpainted wood, and pigment goes only onto the carved parts.

The same pattern appears elsewhere. At Mutsu Kokubunji the gable ends are bare timber while the shrine within blazes with ornament, and at Zuiganji the exterior is plain while the interior is splendid. Here bare timber and color are set against each other on the same outer face.

A frog-leg strut sits above a beam and takes its name from the shape of a frog with its legs apart. It carries load and is carved at the same time. At the Toyokuni Shrine gate and the Ishiteji gate too, these struts stood at the centre of the assessment.

Of the stone chamber, the exposed roof frame is the noted feature: no ceiling is fitted, and the roof structure is left in view. A part that merely joins two halls is finished so as to show its own framing.

Visiting

Kitano Tenmangu is at Bakuro-cho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City. The precinct can be visited and the shrine buildings seen from outside.

Access beyond the middle gate before the main hall may be restricted. Opening hours vary with the season, so check the shrine's information before travelling.

Outside, what repays looking at is the division between bare timber and color: pigment placed only on the carving within a field of unpainted wood.

The arrangement in which the stone chamber sits between main hall and worship hall reads best from the side, as a succession of roofs.