Zenkaku Inari Shrine Main Hall

A Main Hall of 12 Square Metres, Registered in 2017

Zenkaku Inari Shrine Main Hall (善覚稲荷神社本殿, Zenkaku Inari Jinja Honden) stands at 1265-1 Kanayadaira, Kiyama, Maniwa City, Okayama Prefecture, entered on the national register of tangible cultural properties on 27 October 2017. The quantity is one building: timber, single storey, copper-sheet roof, with a footprint of 12 square metres. The owner is the Kiyama Shrine religious corporation.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the date as Taisho, 1919. A footprint of 12 square metres is about the size of seven and a half tatami mats. The hall measures 4.0 metres along and 3.2 metres deep.

The form is gabled and roofed in copper sheet, entered from the long side, with a veranda running around all four sides. Small as it is, it carries a veranda on every side.

Double Walls, with Round Posts Outside and Square Within

What catches the eye in the Agency's account is the treatment of walls and posts.

The walls are laid in two layers, the posts round on the outside and square within, and the ceiling is coffered.

Laying the walls in two layers means setting up two wall planes, and the posts differ in section between them: round outside, square inside.

Round and square posts belong to different traditions of standing and derivation. Here both are used, one on each side of a single building. Posts are usually of one form throughout, which is what makes this arrangement worth noting.

The ceiling is coffered, boards laid within a grid of beams. A coffered ceiling has been fitted into a space of 12 square metres.

Elements Shared with the Rest of the Precinct

The Agency gives the designer and the assessment together: designed by Egawa Saburohachi, a distinctive shrine building drawn together by elements shared with the other buildings of the precinct, such as rafters set in paired groups.

Setting members in paired groups means placing them two by two rather than at even intervals. The rafters are treated this way.

The assessment turns not on the design of this building alone but on what it shares with the others. One designer worked on several buildings in the precinct and drew them together with common elements.

The worship hall of the same shrine was registered on the same day. Its footprint is 44 square metres, very different in scale from the 12 of the main hall. Of the worship hall the Agency records paired rafters, a distinctive truss frame and a coffered ceiling as clear marks of the same designer.

Main hall and worship hall are registered separately and treated as independent properties.

How Registration Works

Registration of tangible cultural properties is a separate mechanism from designation. It works by notification and leaves the owner wide freedom to keep using the building.

Several criteria apply, among them being a model of its form, under which the worship hall of the same shrine is registered. The main hall falls within the same framework.

The owner is the Kiyama Shrine religious corporation. This is a building the shrine actually uses, which puts it on a different footing from a museum holding.

Registration came on 27 October 2017, main hall and worship hall on the same day, the outcome of assessing the precinct together.

Visiting

Zenkaku Inari Shrine is at Kiyama in Maniwa City, Okayama Prefecture. As a shrine, the precinct can generally be visited.

The main hall is a shrine building and cannot be entered. The gabled form, the veranda on all four sides and the paired rafters are taken in from outside.

The double walls and the two forms of post are hard to make out without looking closely beneath the veranda and the eaves. The round outer posts can be seen from the veranda side.

Visiting hours and the availability of the shrine office can change, so check Kiyama Shrine's information before travelling.