Furumine Shrine Main Hall

What the Furumine Shrine Main Hall is

The Furumine Shrine Main Hall (古峯神社本殿, Furumine Jinja Honden) is a single-bay Kasuga-zukuri sanctuary built in 1837 in the precinct of Isurugi Shrine in Hakushincho, Kita Ward, Niigata City, moved there in the Meiji period, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 8, 2008.

Locally it is called Kobugahara-sama, and it enshrines Yamato Takeru. According to the Kita Ward Local History Museum, the site once held a small shrine to Endo Shichirozaemon (遠藤七郎左衛門宗寿), later the deity of Kaichi Shrine. Furumine Shrine began when a wooden figure found in 1878 was enshrined here, and it is worshipped as a protector against fire.

The building covers just 3.6 square meters and has a shingle roof. It sits inside a protective shelter (oiya), facing east. What sets it apart is the carving, which covers almost every surface.

Why the Furumine Shrine Main Hall was registered

The Furumine Shrine Main Hall was registered in the 60th round as number 15-0298, on the same day as the main hall and worship hall of Isurugi Shrine, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

It is a one-bay kasuga-zukuri shrine with hip rafters carrying the eaves around the corners, a cusped gable over the front eaves (Noki-karahafu), and triangular gables (Chidori-hafu) on both sides. The roof is Kokerabuki, thin wooden shingles. The brackets are Degumi, stepping out one stage, with curved Shirin boards running all the way around between them, and each gable has a double rainbow beam with a vase-shaped Taiheizuka strut. Small as it is, the shrine uses the full vocabulary of a much grander building.

On top of that comes an extraordinary amount of carving. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records patterned relief (jimonbori) on the posts and other framing members, relief panels on the doors and walls, and dragons and other figures carved in the round on the porch, filling the whole building with ornament. The local history museum notes that it is built almost entirely of zelkova (keyaki) and deserves attention as decorative art as well as architecture.

What to look for at the Furumine Shrine Main Hall

The date comes from underneath. On timber below the shrine, an ink inscription reads the eighth year of Tenpo, an auspicious day of the eighth month, which is 1837, and the building is thought to date from about then. Tradition says it was moved here, and the Agency places that move in the Meiji period.

When you look at the carving, notice how the technique changes with the part of the building: shallow patterned relief on the posts, pictorial relief panels on the doors and walls, and fully three-dimensional dragons on the porch. The museum's signboard shows a lively dragon and panels carved like paintings.

Beside the shrine stand two stone monuments marking the 60th and 100th anniversaries of Furumine Shrine's founding here, a record of how long the neighborhood has kept up its worship.

Visiting the Furumine Shrine Main Hall

The Furumine Shrine Main Hall is enclosed in its shelter to protect the carving, and on ordinary days you can see it only through the shelter. During the festival on June 15 and 16 the shelter's doors are opened and a children's dance (chigomai) is performed. If you want to see the carving directly, plan your visit for the festival.

On the approach you cross Tsurubashi, the Crane Bridge, a stone bridge left from an old irrigation channel. No photography policy is published, so take pictures only where you will not interrupt the festival or worshippers. Directions are on the Isurugi Shrine (Niigata City) page.