Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor

A Passage of 40 Square Meters

Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor stands in the Jingu district of Miyazaki City, was built in 1907, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in January 2010. It links the offering hall to its south with the sanctuary to its north, and on its own it serves no purpose at all.

The plan is 4 bays long and 1 bay deep, a building area of about 40 square meters, which makes it the smallest of the registered structures in this precinct. Its ridge runs north to south, along the same line as the approach, under a Kirizuma-zukuri roof sheathed in copper. The southern end meets the roof of the offering hall and is set into it.

The registration number is 45-0058. The offering hall immediately to the south carries 45-0057, so the numbers run on, but the two were listed separately. Since the carpentry is continuous, finding the join on site is the harder task.

Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor dates from 1907. What this one structure handles is the few meters between the ground a visitor may stand on and the enclosed ground around the sanctuary, which is closed.

Registering a Passage as a Building

Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor was listed under the criterion that it contributes to the historic landscape of the nation.

What is interesting is that a structure which cannot stand alone was given a registration number of its own. It has no room. There is a roof, a floor and a line of columns, and nobody is expected to stay in it. That it still counts as one building suggests the listing recognised something in giving architectural form to the act of moving between two places.

The official description is brief, but the order in which it names things is telling. Railed decking of split boards runs along both flanks. The columns are round and carry a plain boat-shaped bracket. The eaves rafters run in one widely spaced tier. The floor is wiped boarding. No ceiling is fitted, so the paired-rafter framing is left in view. And although the sides stand open, shutters can be dropped in at waist height. The description is not about whether there are walls; it is about degrees of openness.

What to Look For

Look up. Because Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor has no ceiling, the inoko-sasu framing, two rafters leaning together in a triangle, is directly visible. The same carpentry is used in the offering hall next door, where it hides inside the roof and cannot be seen from outside. One building conceals it, the other displays it, and the two stand a few paces apart.

Check the waist height. Grooves are cut between the columns to take shutters. The corridor normally stands open but can be closed against weather, which means it is built to change with the season. Open, light and air pass through it from both flanks.

Look at the floor. It is wiped boarding, with railed decking projecting to east and west. This is not a floor made for people to sit on; it is a route laid out for carrying offerings. The grain of the boards runs north to south, which is another way the building declares that it has a direction.

Then the sightline. On a still morning you can look from the veranda of the offering hall, straight through this corridor, to the foot of the sanctuary steps with nothing in the way. The point where the north-south axis of the approach finally closes is visible from here.

Visiting Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor

Because both flanks of Miyazaki Shrine Watari-den Corridor stand open, the roof framing can be read from outside. You cannot step up onto the floor, and the sanctuary enclosure beyond is closed to approach. Viewing is done from beside the offering hall, while the precinct is open.

It is small and it sits in the shadow of the larger building, so it is easy to walk past without noticing. Move round to the east or the west flank rather than looking along the axis, and the way the roof meets its neighbour and the decking projects become much clearer.

Photography is not restricted. The open interior tends to be backlit, so bright overcast is easier to work with than sun if the roof framing is what you want.

Directions and the general conditions for visiting the precinct are set out on the Miyazaki Shrine page.