Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha

What the Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha is

The Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha (續麻・今井（兼平）神社兼平社, Tsūso Imai (Kanehira) Jinja Kanehirasha) is a main sanctuary of 1833 in the precinct of Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine in Imai, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 31, 2022.

It enshrines Imai Shirō Kanehira, the warrior from whom the district of Imai is said to take its name, and since 1740 it has also housed the deity Hondawake (Emperor Ōjin). The Agency for Cultural Affairs' 2022 recommendation papers describe it as the sanctuary of the community's guardian deity.

Three of the four registered buildings in the precinct, the Tsusosha, the Shinmeisha and the kagura hall, were brought from elsewhere when the shrines merged in 1947. The Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha is the exception: it was already the main sanctuary of Imai (Kanehira) Shrine on this site, and no move is recorded. It stands behind the worship hall on the left (south) side of the sacred enclosure, beside the Tsusosha.

Construction and history of the Kanehirasha

Matsumoto City says the date of construction is known from the building's style and from its munafuda, the builders' ridge tablet. The Agency's database records a repair in 1960. The building is a one-storey timber structure roofed in copper sheet, with a footprint of 4.4 square meters. That makes it the largest of the three sanctuaries, though still smaller than three tatami mats. The roof is thought to have been finished in wooden shingles originally.

It is an ikkensha Nagare-zukuri sanctuary, one bay wide, with a front roof slope that sweeps out over the steps. Inside, it is divided into an inner and an outer chamber, and the walls are of boards dropped into grooved posts. A veranda carried on projecting bracket sets (koshigumi) runs along three sides and stops at wakishōji screen walls at the rear corners, and steps with a low platform lead up to the front.

Why the Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha was registered

The Kanehirasha was entered in the 103rd round of registration as number 20-0609, under the criterion for structures that would be difficult to reproduce. Only it and the Tsusosha were registered on those grounds among the four buildings in the precinct. Matsumoto City notes that it is well preserved and keeps its original appearance.

In its recommendation of July 22, 2022, the Council for Cultural Affairs presented the Kanehirasha and the Tsusosha as examples of the distinctive, refined carved shrines of the Matsumoto Basin: one-bay sanctuaries decorated with carving of outstanding skill, and fine survivors of a regional tradition.

What to look for on the Kanehirasha

Start with the front of the roof. The Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha stacks a Noki-karahafu, the gable with a rounded, cusped center, beneath a triangular Chidori-hafu. The neighboring Tsusosha has nothing like it, and the double gable makes this 4.4-square-meter building look larger than it is when you face it head on.

The carving is set out in two rows. According to the Agency, intricately carved tebasami brackets fill the angles at the line of the porch pillars and again at the line of the shōbu-geta, the purlin set further back. Seen at an angle, the two rows of brackets overlap and give the carving depth.

Dragons are carved on the porch tie beam and the transom above it, and the whole sanctuary is richly decorated. One of the photographs the Agency chose at registration shows the curved ebi-kōryō, or shrimp beam, that links the porch to the body of the building, another detail worth seeking out.

Seeing the Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine Kanehirasha

The Kanehirasha stands behind the worship hall on the left side of the sacred enclosure. Visitors view it from outside the enclosure, and no opening of the interior has been announced. The stacked gables read best from straight in front, the two rows of brackets and the shrimp beam from an angle. The plain Shinmeisha stands just to the south, so the contrast between an unpainted miniature shrine and a carved sanctuary is easy to see.

Matsumoto City's materials say nothing about photography. This is the sanctuary of a community's guardian deity, so take care not to disturb worshippers or festival rites. Directions and visiting conditions for the precinct are on the Tsuso Imai (Kanehira) Shrine page.