Shufukuji Hoden

A Stone Shrine Dated 1338

The Shufukuji Hoden (守福寺宝殿) is a granite shrine dated 1338 in Shimoashimori, Kita Ward, Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on March 23, 1961. It is a small sanctuary that reproduces the form of a wooden shrine building in carved stone, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Muromachi period.

The Agency records it as stone-built, with a gabled roof, the entrance on the gable end and a one-bay porch, and notes an inscription dated the 22nd day of the 11th month of Ryakuo 1. It is owned by Shufukuji Temple. Okayama Prefecture gives its size as 0.8 metres wide, 1.4 metres deep and 2.0 metres high.

A Shrine to Oji Gongen

According to Okayama Prefecture, the inscriptions show that the Shufukuji Hoden was built to enshrine Oji Gongen. Its date is carved on a porch pillar, so its exact date is known.

An estate map of the late Heian period, the Bitchu no Kuni Ashimori-no-sho Ezu held by Jingoji Temple and dated 1169, marks an "Oji-do" here, and the prefecture suggests that building was the forerunner of the present stone shrine. The hall on the estate map and the stone shrine carved some 170 years later belong to the same line of worship.

Why It Was Designated

The Shufukuji Hoden was designated in 1961. It is a medieval stone copy of a wooden shrine building whose inscriptions record both its date and its deity, and whose forerunner can be traced on a Heian-period map.

What to Look For

Seen from the front, the roof of the Shufukuji Hoden takes the Kasuga-zukuri form, while the back is hipped (Okayama Prefecture). The Agency describes it as gabled with the entrance on the gable end and a one-bay porch, so the whole reads as a gable-entry shrine with a projecting porch, rendered in granite. Walk around to compare the front and back roofs.

The building date is carved on a porch pillar. At about 2.0 metres high the shrine is small, so the inscription and roof details are best examined up close.

Visiting the Shufukuji Hoden

The Shufukuji Hoden is about a 25-minute walk from the Ashimori Nokyo-mae stop on the Chutetsu bus line (Okayama Prefecture). The prefecture gives no information on viewing conditions, and we found no other official notice. The location is Shimoashimori, Kita Ward, Okayama City.