Minase Shrine Chozusha

A Taisho-Era Water Pavilion Beside the Gate

Minase Shrine Chozusha (水無瀬神宮手水舎, Minase Jingū Chōzusha) is a Taisho-era purification pavilion at Minase Shrine in Hirose, Shimamoto Town, Mishima District, Osaka Prefecture, added to the national register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2016. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the reading chōzusha; the same kind of building is also called a temizuya or chōzuya at other shrines. It stands just inside the Shinmon Gate, a little to the north, with its ridge running north to south.

Worshippers rinse their hands and mouth here before approaching the hall. The pavilion has a hip-and-gable roof of pantiles (sangawara) and covers 5.5 square meters, sheltering a stone water basin and a well curb. Together with the gate, it forms the entrance to the shrine grounds.

Full Formality on a Small Scale

The Minase Shrine Chozusha was registered on August 1, 2016 (registration no. 27-0645) for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency's assessment is short: it is a purification pavilion built in a proper, fully developed form.

The plan is based on a single bay square, stretched to 3.0 meters along its length. The square posts are tied by a horizontal tie beam (uchinori nageshi) at lintel height, simple boat-shaped bracket arms sit on top of the posts, and the ceiling is a coffered grid (gō-tenjō). In other words, a structure of only 5.5 square meters uses the same set of members and the same ceiling type as a proper shrine hall. That is what the word "proper" points to.

The Taisho era was when the grounds of Minase Shrine took on their modern form. Writing about the Treasure House, built in the same period, the agency speaks of a precinct reorganized in the modern era, and the Minase Shrine Chozusha appears to belong to that same reorganization.

What to Look For

Start by looking up at the gable. The triangular face is filled with a lattice of crossed battens (kitsure-gōshi), and a plum-blossom gable pendant (umebachi gegyo) hangs at its center. The same pendant appears on the gable of the Shinmon Gate right next to it, so an early Edo gate and a Taisho pavilion share one motif. Compare the two and the match is easy to see.

Then look at the stone basin. According to the shrine, its front is carved with the characters 奉納盥漱 (hōnō kansō) and its side with 構社. Kansō means washing the hands and rinsing the mouth, so the inscription simply names what the basin is for. A well curb stands beside it.

The shrine presents the Chozusha together with Rikyu no Mizu, the spring that was named one of Japan's 100 finest waters in 1985. The tap area for that water is also on the left just inside the Shinmon Gate, close to the pavilion.

Visiting the Minase Shrine Chozusha

The Minase Shrine Chozusha is at the entrance to the grounds and can be seen freely whenever you visit. You can use it for the usual hand-and-mouth purification, which also lets you see the inscription on the basin and the coffered ceiling up close.

Stand at the gable end with the gate behind you for the clearest view of the lattice and the plum-blossom pendant. People start arriving to draw water early in the morning and a line sometimes forms, so keep clear of it while you look at the building. The shrine does not publish a specific photography policy. Directions and hours for the grounds are on the Minase Shrine page.