Kanda Shrine Subordinate Shrine Sannosha Main Hall

What the Sannosha Main Hall Is

The Kanda Shrine Subordinate Shrine Sannosha Main Hall (感田神社末社三之社本殿, Kanda Jinja Massha Sannosha Honden) is a miniature shrine hall built in 1860 at Kanda Shrine in Naka, Kaizuka City, Osaka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 23 October 2008. Kaizuka City identifies it as the hall of the Shinmei shrine.

Northwest of the Ichinosha hall, a single shelter houses three small shrines. The Sannosha hall stands in the middle, with the Yonnosha hall to its east and the Gonosha hall to its west. All three date from 1860, so they were clearly made together in the last years of the shogunate.

Its building area is 1.1 square metres. This is not a building you enter but a small sanctuary set inside the shelter. It is of the Nagare-zukuri type, with a roof that sweeps forward over the front, and only one bay wide, and it is roofed in round-and-flat tiles.

Why It Was Registered

The Kanda Shrine Subordinate Shrine Sannosha Main Hall was registered as a building that serves as a model of form. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises it for careful workmanship.

The details it lists are those of a full-sized shrine scaled down. The hall stands on a raised board platform with a low front deck, the columns are round and carry three-block Mitsudo-gumi brackets, and the gable ends use a Kōryō tie beam with a Taiheizuka strut above it. All of this fits into 1.1 square metres.

The tiled roof sets it apart from its neighbours. The Yonnosha and Gonosha halls on either side are roofed in cypress bark; only the central Sannosha hall is tiled.

What to Look For: Two Doors on a One-Bay Shrine

The oddest thing about the Kanda Shrine Subordinate Shrine Sannosha Main Hall is its front. The interior is divided front and back, and a post has been set in the middle of the façade so that there are two doorways side by side.

A one-bay shrine normally has a single door. Neither the Agency nor the city explains why this one has two.

At the shelter, check first for the paired doors on the central shrine, then compare its tiled roof and single layer of rafters with the bark roofs of the halls on either side.

Visiting the Sannosha Main Hall

Because the Kanda Shrine Subordinate Shrine Sannosha Main Hall sits inside its shelter, it can be seen only from the front of the shelter. There is no entry and no advertised special opening (checked 26 September 2026).

The shelter is northwest of the centre of the grounds, near the end of the earthen wall that runs south from the Shinmon. No photography rules are published; be mindful of people praying. Directions are on the Kanda Shrine page.