Kasuga Shrine Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine

What the Kasuga Shrine Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine Is

Kasuga Shrine Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine (春日神社摂社厳島神社, Kasuga Jinja Sessha Itsukushima Jinja) is a miniature shrine building of the Meiji era (1868 to 1912) standing west of the main hall of Mikasayama Kasuga Shrine in Bungotakada City, Oita Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 28, 2011. A sessha is a subsidiary shrine to deities closely linked to the main one; this one faces south and pairs with the Yasaka subsidiary shrine on the east side of the main hall. It sits on your left as you face the main hall and enshrines Ichikishimahime and five other deities.

It is a one-bay shrine in the nagare style (Nagare-zukuri), with a copper roof and a footprint of just 1.2 square metres. Round posts rise from a sill on a cut-stone base, tied by horizontal beams (Nageshi). The brackets are simple boat-shaped blocks, the rafters are double-layered and closely spaced, and the gable is filled with an inverted V of struts. A veranda (Kirime-en) with a railing (Kōran) capped by onion-shaped finials (Giboshi) wraps the building, and two wooden steps lead up to the front.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Kasuga Shrine Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine as small but carefully made. On a floor smaller than a single tatami mat, it carries the railings, finials and steps of a full-sized shrine.

It also completes the shrine's signature layout, with subsidiary shrines flanking the main hall so that three sanctuaries stand in a row, an arrangement the survey behind the registration linked to shrines of the Usa tradition. Its eastern partner, the Yasaka subsidiary shrine, dates from the later Edo period (1751 to 1830) and has the same form and the same 1.2 square metres, but it is dressed with three-bearing brackets and a carved frog-leg strut. The two sides of the main hall are matched in size and contrasted in style.

What to Look For

Face the building and find the inverted V of struts in the gable. It is the quickest way to tell this shrine from the Yasaka shrine on the other side, whose gable carries a carved frog-leg strut instead.

Then look along the veranda: the finial-capped railing and the two-step wooden stair are the features of a formal shrine, scaled down to fit a building you could almost span with your arms.

Visiting the Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine

The Kasuga Shrine Itsukushima Subsidiary Shrine stands to the west of the main hall, on the left as you face it. Visitors pay their respects from outside; the building is not entered. Directions and general visiting information are on the Mikasayama Kasuga Shrine page.