Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine

What the Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine Is

Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine (春日神社摂社八坂神社, Kasuga Jinja Sessha Yasaka Jinja) is a miniature shrine building of the later Edo period (1751 to 1830) east of the main hall of Mikasayama Kasuga Shrine in Bungotakada City, Oita Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 28, 2011. It faces south and pairs with the Itsukushima subsidiary shrine on the west side of the main hall. It stands on your right as you face the main hall and enshrines Susanoo and three other deities.

It is a one-bay shrine in the nagare style (Nagare-zukuri) with a copper roof and a footprint of 1.2 square metres. A veranda (Kirime-en) with a railing (Kōran) runs round three sides. Round posts rise from a sill on a cut-stone base, tied by horizontal beams (Nageshi); the brackets are of the three-bearing type (Mitsudo-gumi), the rafters are double-layered and closely spaced, and the gable omits the usual rainbow beam (Kōryō) and carries only a carved frog-leg strut (Kaerumata).

Why It Was Registered

The Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine is one of the Edo-period buildings among the 13 registered, older than the Meiji-era Itsukushima shrine opposite (1868 to 1912). For a building of 1.2 square metres, it is richly finished, with brackets, carved struts and relief carving.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the curved connecting beams (Ebi-kōryō) that link the front posts to the core of the building. On their inner ends they carry the same carved scroll pattern as the projecting ends of the head beams, so the pattern is carried consistently into parts you can barely see.

It is also the eastern half of the shrine's three-in-a-row arrangement of main hall and two flanking subsidiary shrines, one of the features that earned the precinct its registration.

What to Look For

From the front, look up at the gable: a carved frog-leg strut sits alone where a rainbow beam would normally be. Compare it with the plain inverted-V struts of the Itsukushima shrine across the way and the difference in character between the two is clear.

Then move to the side and compare the inner end of a curved connecting beam with the end of a head beam. The same scroll carving appears on both.

Visiting the Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine

The Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine stands to the east of the main hall, on the right 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.