Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall

What the Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall in Niigata City is

The Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall (開市神社拝殿, Kaichi Jinja Haiden) is a worship hall built in 1871 in the grounds of Inari Shrine in Kuzutsuka, Kita Ward, Niigata City, relocated and repaired in 1969, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 8, 2008.

Kaichi Shrine is a subsidiary shrine within Inari Shrine (Niigata City). Its name means "opening the market," and it honors three men of the Endo family, headmen of Kuzutsuka, who worked to open and sustain the town's market. The Niigata City Kita Ward Local History Museum names them as Endo Shichirozaemon (遠藤七郎左衛門宗寿), a later Shichirozaemon (国忠) and Endo Shichiro (遠藤七郎昭忠).

The Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall stands south of the Inari Shrine worship hall, facing north. It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a footprint of 20 square meters. The original core is three bays by two under a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri roof of interlocking pantiles; a one-bay strip was later added along the sides and back.

How Kaichi Shrine came about and how its worship hall moved

According to the museum's signboard, the story begins in 1863, when the first Shichirozaemon was enshrined in both the Inari Shrine and Isurugi Shrine precincts of Kuzutsuka. At Inari Shrine the townspeople revered him as the kami of the market he had opened. Thanks to his efforts the shogunate had allowed a market here in 1761, and the Kuzutsuka market still runs on the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th of every month.

The following year his successor, who had settled a dispute that threatened to split Kuzutsuka and served the village as headman, was enshrined with him. In 1871, when the new district of Tokiwacho was laid out on filled-in fields, the two small shrines were merged to mark the occasion, and Kaichi Shrine was built in Tokiwacho. The present Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall is the building put up then.

In 1928 Endo Shichiro, who had led the Hokushintai militia at the end of the Edo period, was posthumously given court rank, and the townspeople added him to the shrine's deities. In 1969 the shrine moved from Tokiwacho into the grounds of Inari Shrine, bringing the 1871 building with it.

Why the Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall was registered

The Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall was registered in the 60th round as number 15-0302. The three Inari Shrine buildings registered the same day were recognized for contributing to the historic landscape; this hall was registered instead as a model of good design.

The reason is its design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs explains that the posts, tie beam (nuki) and purlin of its one-bay porch are shaped like a torii gate. A torii normally stands at the entrance to the approach; here its form has been built into the face of the worship hall itself.

The eaves are carried out on cantilevered brackets in the manner called segai-zukuri, and the rafters are set close together in a single layer (hitonoki shige-daruki). The Agency calls these features unusual for a shrine building.

What to look for at the Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall

Stand at the front and look at the porch: two posts, a tie beam running through them, and the purlin above. Together they trace the outline of a torii. It is not a gate to pass under but the face of the hall.

Then look at the eaves, where the close-set rafters run out over the projecting purlin. Walk round the side to see how the later one-bay addition on the sides and back meets the hip-and-gable roof of the original hall.

The grounds also hold a monument honoring Endo Shichiro and a stone dedicated to his younger brother Endo Hachiro (遠藤興国霊神). According to the signboard, the stone is said to have been raised in 1900 by the pupils of the temple school Hachiro had taught.

Visiting the Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall

The Kaichi Shrine Worship Hall stands south of the Inari Shrine worship hall and faces north, so walk south from the front of the Inari Shrine worship hall and you will meet it head on. The exterior can be seen from the grounds, but we found no notice of the interior or any special viewing being opened, and no posted rules on photography. Photograph the exterior only and keep clear of worshippers.

The museum's signboard gives the Kaichi Shrine festival as October 9 and 10. It was once held on November 8, in memory of the eighth day of the tenth lunar month of 1761, when permission for the market was granted. Directions to the grounds are on the Inari Shrine (Niigata City) page.