Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall

What the Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall Is

Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall (象山神社宝殿, Zōzan Jinja Hōden) is a small 1938 storehouse in the grounds of Zozan Shrine in Matsushiro-machi, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

A hoden is the building where a shrine keeps its treasures and ritual equipment. The national database describes only the structure and says nothing about what is stored inside. At 30 square meters it is the smallest of the six Zozan Shrine buildings registered on the same day.

You will find it in the middle of the grounds, a little to the west, facing east. The ema hall stands close by, facing the same way.

Registered for Its Place in the Landscape

The Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall was registered on December 26, 2005 as number 20-0223. Its criterion differs from that of the main hall: rather than a model of form, it was recognized as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

That criterion does not hold the building up as an exemplar of design. It values the part a building plays in the scene around it. Here the scene is a shrine precinct laid out as a single project in 1938, and the treasure hall is one of its components.

Even so, the official description adds that despite its small size the building shows care in its ventilation openings and in the form of its veranda and steps. For a store of textiles, paper, lacquer and metalwork, stagnant air means damp, and damp means damage. That ventilation is singled out suggests the hall was designed with its storage role in mind.

Seeing the Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall

The Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall is a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled building with a Dōban-buki copper roof. It sits on a base of cut stone, and square posts carry Funahijiki, a single boat-shaped bearing block on top of each post, the plainest bracket form in Japanese carpentry.

The walls are boarded up to waist height and finished above in white Shikkui plaster. Boarding the lower wall is the standard way to protect it from rain splashing up off the ground, and the level line where timber meets plaster gives the little building a low, settled look.

Each side wall has a Renji-mado, a window of slender vertical bars set at regular intervals that lets in light and air while staying shut. Step a little to the north or south and the rows of bars come into view.

Finish at the front with the veranda and steps. They are the parts the Agency for Cultural Affairs chose to name, and for a storehouse they are carefully made.

Visiting the Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall

The interior of the Zozan Shrine Treasure Hall is closed and no display of its contents is advertised. The exterior can be viewed freely from the grounds at no charge.

Walk to the middle of the grounds and turn west to see its east-facing front. It is easy to miss, so step out of the flow of people heading to the worship hall. Directions and reception hours are on the Zozan Shrine page.