Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall

What the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall Is

The Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall (泉穴師神社本殿, Izumi Anashi Jinja Honden) is a Momoyama-period shrine hall built in 1602 at Izumianashi Shrine in Toyonaka, Izumiotsu City, Osaka Prefecture, and designated an Important Cultural Property on February 18, 1949.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a three-bay Nagare-zukuri hall with two Chidori-hafu gables on the front and a cypress-bark roof. It was designated an Important Cultural Property on February 18, 1949, together with five Munafuda, the wooden boards on which builders recorded their work, among them the board for the 1602 rebuilding.

The hall enshrines a married pair of deities, Ame-no-Oshihomimi-no-Mikoto and Takuhatachijihime-no-Mikoto. It stands in the center of the enclosure behind the worship hall, inside the Suzumon gate, with the Kasuga Shrine hall to its east and the Sumiyoshi Shrine hall to its west.

Why the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall Matters: Two Halls Joined as One

Although it is recorded as three bays wide, the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall is not one large sanctuary. Osaka Bunkazai Navi explains that it consists of two one-bay nagare-zukuri halls, each with a chidori gable, set side by side and joined by a connecting bay. The practice of enshrining two deities together shaped the building, and this type was once called aidono-zukuri, the joint-sanctuary style. The shrine itself uses another name, hiyoku-zukuri, after a pair of birds that fly wing to wing.

You can read the arrangement from outside. There is one chidori gable over each side, and wooden steps with railings (Kōran) rise only to the two outer bays. The central bay has an earthen floor and no seat for a deity.

According to the shrine's precinct guide, the munafuda of the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall names the senior counselor Toyotomi Hideyori and his commissioner Katagiri Katsumoto, gives the date as the tenth month of 1602, and also names the officer Fujibayashi Sadayoshi and the carpenter Jirozaemon. Osaka Prefecture's list describes the five designated boards: one from the tenth month of 1602, one for the completion of the building in the eleventh month, two for re-roofing in 1631 and 1763, and one for another re-roofing in 1856. Read together, they track the upkeep of the roof from Hideyori's rebuilding to the last years of the shogunate.

There are clues to the earlier buildings as well. Osaka Bunkazai Navi notes a copy of a munafuda dated 1333 and boards recording cypress-bark re-roofing in 1381 and 1569. A board of 1502 was written on a shingle meant for Kokerabuki wood-shingle roofing, which suggests the older hall may have had a shingle roof. Some parts of the present hall, including the blind lattice around the outer sanctuary ceiling, the ceiling ribs, the flower-lozenge transom above the front lintel and some rafters, are said to come from the previous building.

What to Look For at the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall

At the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall, start with the two chidori gables and the single flight of steps below each one. Once you notice that there is no stair in the middle, the idea of two shrines standing shoulder to shoulder becomes clear.

Then look at the details. The Kaerumata braces on the east and west of the front porch (Kōhai) carry different carvings, and the Wakishōji screens that close off the ends of the veranda are carved and painted to different designs on each side. The doors of both sanctuaries are painted, the connecting bay has painted panels, and the gable ornaments are colored too.

The colors you see today come from a restoration carried out over three years from fiscal 2014. The cypress-bark roof was renewed, and faded posts, braces and Kumimono bracket sets were repainted as closely as possible to their state after the repairs of 1958 and 1959.

Visiting the Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall

The Izumianashi Shrine Main Hall stands behind the worship hall, inside the Suzumon gate. The shrine says the gate is opened on New Year's Day from midnight to 5:00 p.m., when visitors may pray at the hall from inside the enclosure; it is shut during the New Year rite. Access on other days is not published, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi describes the hall as partly viewable. The interior is not open.

The shrine gives no rule on photography, so ask at the shrine office before taking pictures. Directions to the grounds and general visiting conditions are on the Izumianashi Shrine page.