Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall

The Hall Where Visitors Pray

Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall (水無瀬神宮拝殿及び幣殿, Minase Jingū Haiden oyobi Heiden) is a shrine building completed in 1929 at Minase Shrine in Hirose, Shimamoto Town, Mishima District, Osaka Prefecture, and was added to the national register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2016. It is the building visitors face when they come to pray: the Worship Hall (haiden) in front, the Offering Hall (heiden) attached behind it, and the Main Hall beyond.

Its architect is known. The design was by Sunami Takashi, an engineer at the Home Ministry, the government body that oversaw shrines before the war. The shrine credits him by name, Shimamoto Town says the hall shows his hand, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs closes its own description of the Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall by naming him.

According to the shrine, every building in the main compound except the Main Hall, including the Worship Hall, the connecting corridor and the room for preparing food offerings, dates from 1929. In other words, a new hall from the start of the Showa era was set in front of an early Edo sanctuary.

Why It Was Registered

The Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall was registered on August 1, 2016 (registration no. 27-0643) as a model of form. Shimamoto Town singles out the broad, calm hip-and-gable roof of the Worship Hall and the way it is dressed with distinctive projecting beam ends (kibana) and frog-leg struts (kaerumata) with long, relaxed curves, all of which it reads as Sunami's signature.

The agency's note draws attention to what is overhead. The roof frame uses a rainbow beam (kōryō) carrying an inokosasu truss, a pair of inclined struts with a short post set between them, and the brackets on the posts are simple boat-shaped arms. The agency calls this old-fashioned. A brand-new hall of 1929 was given a deliberately archaic skeleton, and then the architect added his own line in the carved struts and beam ends. That pairing is what the registration recognizes.

What to Look For

The Worship Hall is four bays long with a hip-and-gable roof and a three-bay porch roof (kōhai) projecting from the front. On the north side there is a lean-to extension and the offering-preparation room, and the two-bay Offering Hall is attached at the back. The roof is copper sheet, and the two halls together cover 149 square meters.

The Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall has no raised wooden floor; it is built in the earthen-floor (doma) style, and a railing runs around the stone base. As you walk toward the building, the base and its railing frame the hall at ground level.

Once you are under the porch roof, look up at the frog-leg struts under the eaves. Both Shimamoto Town and the agency point to these curving pieces as characteristic of Sunami's design. The carved beam ends at the tops of the posts are worth a look as well.

Visiting the Worship Hall and Offering Hall

This is where visitors normally stand to pray, so the exterior of the Minase Shrine Worship Hall and Offering Hall can be seen any time you are on the grounds. The interior of the Worship Hall and the Offering Hall are used for ceremonies and are not open to the public.

For a full view of the front, stop on the approach just inside the Shinmon Gate. The Guest Hall stands to the left of the Worship Hall, and from in front of the hall you can compare the two roofs side by side. The shrine does not publish a photography policy, so avoid photographing ceremonies and ask at the shrine office first. Directions and hours for the grounds are on the Minase Shrine page.