Rikyu Hachimangu Shrine Middle Gate

The Gate in Front of the Worship Hall

Rikyu Hachimangu Shrine Middle Gate (離宮八幡宮中門, Rikyū Hachimangū Chūmon) is a gate of about 1928 at Rikyu Hachimangu in Oyamazaki, Kyoto Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2013.

It is a timber Shikyakumon, or four-legged gate, with a copper-plate roof and a frontage of 3.3 metres, flanked by short Sodobei walls that turn back at a right angle on either side. It stands directly in front of the worship hall and opens the straight line that runs through worship hall to main hall.

Why It Was Registered

The Rikyu Hachimangu Shrine Middle Gate was registered as a model of form. In a four-legged gate, the two main posts that carry the doors are braced front and back by pairs of secondary posts. Here all of them are square in section, and the main posts hang a pair of paneled sankarado doors. The double-tiered eaves lift gracefully at the corners.

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is the Kaerumata, the frog-leg bracket. The gables carry flat plank versions, and the one on the front quotes the design of the Gekkamon, an old gate at the Zen temple Tofukuji in Kyoto. A Buddhist temple gate thus supplied the ornament for a Shinto shrine gate built in the Showa era.

That habit of choosing good forms from the classical repertoire and combining them, instead of copying one period or sect, runs through the whole precinct, and this bracket shows it most clearly.

What to Look For

Stand in front and look first at the bracket above the doors, borrowed from Tofukuji's Gekkamon. It is the focal point of the whole facade.

Then look at the eaves. The two tiers rise gently toward each end, giving a lift to a gate only 3.3 metres wide. The roof was repaired in the Heisei-era renovation, which broke ground in 2009.

From the side you can see the plank bracket in the gable and the flanking walls folding back like arms. Framed by the gate, the curved gable of the worship hall rises behind, a view you get only from here.

Visiting the Middle Gate

The Rikyu Hachimangu Shrine Middle Gate stands in front of the worship hall, with the purification pavilion to its southwest. It can be seen freely from within the grounds, and the front bracket is clear from the foot of the gate. How the doors are opened and closed could not be confirmed from published sources, so follow what you find on site about passing through.

No published restriction on photographing the exterior could be found, but hold off during ceremonies and while others are praying, and follow any signs on site. Directions and general visiting conditions are covered on the Rikyu Hachimangu page.