Aoba Shrine Offering Preparation Hall and Offering Corridor

Where the Offerings Are Prepared

The Aoba Shrine Offering Preparation Hall and Offering Corridor (青葉神社神饌所及び伝供廊) is an offering preparation hall with its corridor of about 1929 in Aoba Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 29, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building roofed in copper sheet, with a building area of 27 square metres; registration number 04-163.

An Offering Hall Linked to the Worship Hall

The Aoba Shrine Offering Preparation Hall and Offering Corridor consists of the shinsenjo, a hall northwest of the worship hall, and the denkuro, a corridor connecting it to the worship hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The shinsenjo is where the food offered to the deity is prepared, and the denkuro is the passage along which the offerings are carried to the worship hall.

The offering preparation hall is three bays by three, with a copper-sheet hip-and-gable roof; a corridor with a copper gabled roof, set at the south end of its east side, joins it to the worship hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Inside, a passage runs along the south and a single wood-floored room lies to the north. The eaves rest on Funahijiki boat-shaped bracket arms, with a single layer of widely spaced rafters.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that the Aoba Shrine Offering Preparation Hall and Offering Corridor blend with the worship hall to form a modern shrine frontage; they were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. Miyagi Prefecture makes the same point.

What to Look For

Compare the plain eaves on boat-shaped bracket arms with the block-and-arm brackets of the worship hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The design is quieter than the main buildings, yet the matching hip-and-gable roof and the linking corridor make the two read as one composition.

Visiting

The Aoba Shrine Offering Preparation Hall and Offering Corridor serve the preparation of offerings, and no official information on interior access was found. The exterior can be seen northwest of the worship hall. Directions are on the Aoba Shrine page.