Yoshida Shrine Saijosho Daigengu

The Central Hall of Yoshida Shinto

The Yoshida Shrine Saijosho Daigengu (吉田神社斎場所太元宮) is the ritual hall of Yoshida Shrine on Mount Yoshida in Yoshida Kaguraoka-cho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, whose octagonal sanctuary of 1601 was designated an Important Cultural Property on July 31, 1902. The shrine writes its name as Daigengu with a different first character (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Yoshida Shrine).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as an octagonal hall, single-storey, with a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) thatched roof, owned by Yoshida Shrine.

Root Sanctuary of Yoshida Shinto

According to Yoshida Shrine, Yoshida Kanetomo moved a shrine that had stood at Muromachi in the capital to this site in 1484, installing it on the 24th day of the 11th month, and made it the root sanctuary of Yoshida Shinto, from which he promoted the worship of the gods.

In Yoshida Shinto teaching the Daigengu represents the axis of the universe. It enshrines at its centre the primordial deity Kyomu Taigen Sonjin and all the myriad gods born from it, so that it is a shrine to the gods of the whole country; the halls to east and west honour the 3,132 deities of the official shrine register (Yoshida Shrine).

Why It Was Designated

The Yoshida Shrine Saijosho Daigengu was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1902. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the building to 1601, in the Momoyama period, and records its form: an octagonal hall under a hip-and-gable thatched roof.

What to Look For

The Yoshida Shrine Saijosho Daigengu sets a hip-and-gable thatched roof over an octagonal plan (Agency for Cultural Affairs), a distinctive shape among shrine buildings.

According to Yoshida Shrine, special rites centred on the Daigengu are held during the Setsubun festival, when crowds come to pray at the yakuzuka mound to ward off misfortune.

Visiting the Daigengu

According to Yoshida Shrine, worshippers normally pray from the middle gate; only during the first three days of the New Year, the Setsubun festival and on the 1st of each month can they enter to the sanctuary and side shrines (about 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., until about 10:00 p.m. on February 2 and 3, free). The address is 30 Yoshida Kaguraoka-cho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto; telephone 075-771-3788.