Arakawa Shrine

About Arakawa Shrine

Arakawa Shrine is a shrine on the high ground of Momosakihama, Tainai City, Niigata Prefecture, whose main sanctuary and worship and offering hall, both of 1841, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on December 5, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Momosakihama prospered as a port of the Kitamaebune trading ships, and the richly carved buildings are seen as recalling that trade.

The registration numbers are 15-0526 for the main sanctuary and 15-0527 for the worship and offering hall, both owned by Arakawa Shrine (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

A Kitamaebune Port and Its Votive Plaques

According to a series by Niigata Prefecture's Shibata regional office, written by Tainai City, Momosakihama was one of the three Arakawa ports that thrived on the Kitamaebune trade, and many ships called there at the end of the Edo period. Shipowners not only from the village but from Niigata, Sakata and Noto offered ship plaques (funa-ema) here to pray for safe voyages.

The 86 plaques, dating from 1837 to 1878, covered the walls of the shrine buildings until 1965 and are now kept and shown in the Momosakihama storehouse on the left of the grounds (Niigata Prefecture). Niigata Tourism Navi notes that the plaques and model ships were designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property in 1970. The shrine honours Ame-no-Uzume, and a painting of the Heavenly Rock Cave by the Osaka ship-plaque painter 吉本善京 hangs inside (Niigata Prefecture).

The Two Registered Structures

Both were registered on December 5, 2019, as structures that have become models of design. Both date from 1841 and were renovated in 1971 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The main sanctuary faces west at the back of the grounds: a tall one-bay nagare-style shrine, single-storey, with a copper roof shaped like thatch and a building area of 11 square metres. Its gable ornaments and the carvings above the tie beams are worked in flowing wave patterns (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The worship and offering hall joins the front of the main sanctuary, with a hip-and-gable copper roof shaped like thatch and a building area of 101 square metres. The offering hall projects behind the large worship hall, flanked by an offerings room and a portable-shrine store (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Niigata Prefecture likens its distinctive roof to a face with eyes and a nose.

Visiting

The grounds of Arakawa Shrine are open to worshippers, and the shrine buildings are seen from outside; no opening of the interiors has been announced. To see the ship votive plaques in the Momosakihama storehouse on the left of the grounds, contact the Tainai City Board of Education in advance (0254-43-6111) (Niigata Prefecture).

According to Niigata Tourism Navi, the shrine is at 187 Momosakihama, Tainai City, about 15 minutes by car from Sakamachi Station on the JR Uetsu Line or 10 minutes from the Arakawa-Tainai interchange of the Nihonkai-Tohoku Expressway. Each building is described in its own article.