Kasuga Shrine Moshiden

What the Kasuga Shrine Moshiden Is

Kasuga Shrine Moshiden (春日神社申殿, Kasuga Jinja Mōshiden) is a 1905 offering hall at Mikasayama Kasuga Shrine in Bungotakada City, Oita Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 28, 2011. A moshiden generally stands between the worship hall and the main hall, and it is where priests recite prayers to the deity; this one sits directly in front of the main hall.

The single-storey timber building covers 12 square metres, measuring 1 bay by 1 bay, with a gabled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) of pantiles (Sangawara-buki) running east to west. Round posts are tied with horizontal beams (Nageshi), a head beam and a plate, and carry three-bearing brackets; in the gables, simple struts hold the ridge and purlins. Inside is a single boarded room with a coffered ceiling (Gō-tenjō). The rear half of each side wall is boarded, and every other bay is fitted with glass doors.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs presents the Kasuga Shrine Moshiden as an example of the offering halls found in this region. Many shrines between Usa and the Kunisaki Peninsula combine a main hall, an offering hall and a long worship hall, and here the three stand in a single north-south line. The moshiden is the link in the middle.

Its Meiji date shows in the joinery. A tiny traditional frame of round posts and bracket sets is filled mostly with glass doors, then a relatively new material for a shrine building.

Its recent care is on record too. As part of the preparations for the twelve-hundredth anniversary in 2009, the moshiden was restored, with two of the shrine's parish representatives acting as master carpenters.

What to Look For

Look past the worship hall toward the main hall and you will see the Kasuga Shrine Moshiden standing squarely in front of the sanctuary. This is the best place to read the straight line of worship hall, offering hall and main hall.

Note the three-bearing brackets on the posts and the beams that bind them. Small as it is, the building has the full vocabulary of a shrine hall. Through the glass you can glimpse the boarded floor and coffered ceiling.

Visiting the Moshiden

The Kasuga Shrine Moshiden stands behind the worship hall, and visitors see it from there; the interior is not open. Ask at the shrine office before photographing a ceremony. Directions and general visiting information are on the Mikasayama Kasuga Shrine page.