Tamayorihime Shrine Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter

What the Munakatasha Worship Hall and Shelter Is

Tamayorihime Shrine Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter (玉依比賣命神社宗形社拝殿及び本殿覆屋, Munakata-sha Haiden oyobi Honden Ōiya) is a mid-Edo-period building of the Munakatasha, a subsidiary shrine in the eastern part of the grounds of Tamayorihime Shrine in Tōjō, Matsushiro-machi, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, dated to between 1661 and 1751 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2014.

The long name describes a building doing two jobs. The front half is the worship hall of the Munakatasha, where people stand to pray. The back half is an ōiya, a sheltering structure built around a small main hall to keep weather off it. Under one roof, the Tamayorihime Shrine Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter holds a complete shrine.

It faces south and has a building area of just 13 square meters. The Munakatasha is a Keidaisha, one of the lesser shrines within a larger shrine's precinct; the national database does not name its deity.

How the Munakatasha Shelter Is Put Together

The Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter measures three bays along the ridge and two bays deep. Its roof is Yosemune-zukuri, a full hipped roof, and was thatched in Kayabuki; the thatch is now covered by temporary steel sheeting, so the roof you see is metal over straw.

The entrance is on the gable end, the Tsumairi arrangement, which on a hipped roof means the narrower end. The sides and back are closed with vertical boarding, Tateita-bari, while the front is left open.

Inside, the board floor is divided into a front room and a back room. The back room is raised, and the Munakatasha main hall sits in it. A lattice screen stands on the line between the two rooms, so the front room acts as the worship hall and looks through the lattice to the sanctuary.

Why the Munakatasha Shelter Was Registered

The Tamayorihime Shrine Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter was registered on December 19, 2014 as number 20-0464, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The official description gives the reason in a phrase: it conveys well the look of a shrine precinct in the early modern period. Here a thatched shelter open at the front and boarded on three sides keeps its original layout of front room, lattice and raised back room, and the small main hall inside it is the oldest of the shrine's four registered buildings.

Seeing the Munakatasha Shelter

Walk east from the worship hall of Tamayorihime Shrine to find the Munakatasha Worship Hall and Main Hall Shelter facing south. The front is open, so you can stand before it and look through the lattice toward the main hall inside. Entry into the building is not advertised, and the raised back room is not for visitors.

Before approaching, look at the building from the side. The steep pitch of the hipped roof is a reminder that it was built for thatch, even under its present metal skin.

No photography rule is published; please be discreet if anyone is praying. Directions are on the Tamayorihime Shrine page.