Kameoka Shrine

How Kameoka Shrine came to be

Kameoka Shrine (亀岡神社, Kameoka Jinja) is a Shinto shrine in Iwanoue-cho, Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture, built in 1880 on the site of the second enclosure of Hirado Castle; its main hall, worship hall and kagura hall, together with an offering hall and climbing corridor from the early Showa period, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2012.

Hirado Castle's official website traces the shrine to an older one inside the castle, 霊椿山神社, which had fallen into disrepair. It was enshrined anew together with three other shrines, Shichiro, Otomiya and Hachiman, and a fresh set of buildings went up in the Ninomaru, the castle's second enclosure. That enclosure had once held the Ninomaru Palace, where the domain lords lived, so four shrines came together on what had been the working heart of the castle. The name Kameoka survives in the local district name of the address as well.

The tie to kagura, the sacred dance of Shinto ritual, goes back a long way. Cultural Heritage Online says that Tachibana Mitsuyoshi, credited with revising and expanding Hirado's kagura in the Shoho era (1644 to 1648) and laying the foundation of today's Hirado Kagura, was the son of a priest at Shichiro-gu in Hirado. That shrine appears to be the Shichiro Shrine later merged into Kameoka Shrine, so one strand of the shrine's lineage leads straight to the dances still performed in its grounds.

The precinct and the four registered buildings of Kameoka Shrine

Read side by side, the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions give a clear plan of Kameoka Shrine. The kagura hall stands just outside the corridor and sacred fence that enclose the main buildings, facing west onto the approach path. Inside the enclosure the worship hall stands to the south, the main hall sits at the centre of the north end on a tall Ishigaki stone wall, and the offering hall and climbing corridor link the two.

All four were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 13, 2012, under consecutive numbers 42-0099 to 42-0102. Each was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

• Kameoka Shrine Main Hall: 1880, single-storey timber, sheet-iron roof with some tile, building area 32 m²
• Kameoka Shrine Offering Hall and Climbing Corridor: early Showa period (1926 to 1945), single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 9.6 m²
• Kameoka Shrine Worship Hall: 1880, single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 48 m²
• Kameoka Shrine Kagura Hall: 1880, single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 47 m²

The main hall, worship hall and kagura hall all date from the founding year. The offering hall and corridor that join the main hall to the worship hall are dated to the early Showa period, so the group reads best as a Meiji ensemble with a Showa link set into its middle.

Two details in the records are worth knowing. The registered name of the connecting building writes heiden with the character 弊, while the description and the reading use the usual 幣. The kagura hall's address is also given as 151 Kameoka, not 1517 like the other three. Both are kept here exactly as the Agency's database records them.

Festivals and Hirado Kagura at Kameoka Shrine

The main festival of Kameoka Shrine is Hirado Kunchi in October. During it the shrine offers the Daidai Kagura, the complete programme of all 24 pieces of Hirado Kagura. Hirado City's newsletter describes this as the one occasion each year when the full set is performed.

Hirado Kagura opens with pieces such as Taiko Hajime and Arajio and closes with Yachikuma. Shrines choose among four grades, Daidai Kagura, Dai Kagura, Chu Kagura and Sho Kagura, which differ in how many pieces are danced. Elsewhere the dances are often performed in a worship hall or offering hall, but Kameoka Shrine has a hall built for them. Festival dates and performance times can shift from year to year, so check with the shrine before planning a visit around them.

Visiting Kameoka Shrine

Kameoka Shrine lies within the grounds of Hirado Castle, and the castle's official site lists it among the places to see on a walk around the castle. The buildings can be viewed from the outside within the shrine grounds. How far the interiors are open has not been confirmed, so ask at the shrine office if you hope to see inside, for example the name plaques in the worship hall. Please hold off on photography during rituals and keep clear of people at prayer.

The shrine sits on the south-eastern side of central Hirado, about 450 m south-south-east of the Hirado Sanbashi bus terminal and about 300 m east of Hirado City Hall in a straight line. The way climbs the castle hill, so the walk is longer than those figures suggest. For drivers, the castle's official site lists three car parks: P1 with 100 spaces for cars, P2 with 20 and P3 with 7.