Aoba Shrine Worship Hall

The Hall at the End of the Approach

The Aoba Shrine Worship Hall (青葉神社拝殿) is the worship hall of a shrine of 1927 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 hall roofed in copper sheet, with a building area of 101 square metres; registration number 04-162.

The Hall at the End of the Approach

The Aoba Shrine Worship Hall stands directly in front of the main hall, facing south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is five bays wide and three bays deep, with a copper-sheet hip-and-gable roof, a one-bay Kōhai porch at the front and a veranda on all four sides.

The brackets are block-and-arm brackets, and intermediate supports appear only in the central bay at front and back (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The eaves have a single layer of rafters. Inside, the floor is laid with tatami under a coffered ceiling. The shrine likewise describes a hall built in 1927 with a copper hip-and-gable roof and a formal coffered ceiling.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that the Aoba Shrine Worship Hall closes the end of an orderly approach and forms the core of a modern shrine frontage; it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. Miyagi Prefecture makes the same point about its place at the end of the approach.

What to Look For

Walking up the approach, the hip-and-gable roof and porch come into view straight ahead. The precinct is composed around this hall, which is easiest to appreciate from partway along the approach (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

With intermediate supports only in the central bay, the front reads as restrained and orderly. The offering preparation hall joins the worship hall from the northwest by a corridor, and the small former Megohime Shrine protective hall stands in front (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

Visitors worship in front of the Aoba Shrine Worship Hall. The interior is a single tatami room, and no official information on interior access was found. According to the shrine, prayer services are booked in advance through the shrine office, and photography and recording are not permitted during rites. Directions are on the Aoba Shrine page.