Minase Shrine Treasure House

A Plastered Storehouse in the Southwest Corner

Minase Shrine Treasure House (水無瀬神宮神庫, Minase Jingū Shinko) is a Taisho-era fireproof storehouse at Minase Shrine in Hirose, Shimamoto Town, Mishima District, Osaka Prefecture, added to the national register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2016. A shinko is the building in which a shrine keeps its ritual implements and treasured objects. This one stands in the southwest corner of the grounds, facing north.

It is a two-story timber building in the dozō-zukuri manner, with thick earthen walls finished in plaster, and a hipped roof of pantiles. The plan measures two and a half bays by two, for a building area of 24 square meters. Set apart from the Worship Hall and the Main Hall, it is easy to miss if you only walk the main approach.

Part of a Precinct Remade in the Modern Era

The Minase Shrine Treasure House was registered on August 1, 2016 (registration no. 27-0644) for its contribution to the historic landscape. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs' words, it contributes to the scenery of a precinct that was reorganized in the modern era.

The grounds hold an early Edo Main Hall and gate, while the Chozusha and the Treasure House date from the Taisho era and the Worship Hall and Offering Hall from 1929. After the old memorial hall became a Shinto shrine, the buildings around the sanctuary were filled out between the 1910s and the end of the 1920s. The Minase Shrine Treasure House belongs to that phase, and the agency's assessment is aimed less at the storehouse on its own than at the part it plays in the layout of the whole precinct.

The reason for building a shrine storehouse this way is fire. On grounds made up of timber halls, a store with thick mud walls sealed in plaster is the safest place to keep ritual objects.

What to Look For

The Minase Shrine Treasure House sits on a base of cut stone, and four stone steps lead up to the door at the front. Raising the floor and approaching the door by steps is a standard defense against damp in Japanese storehouses.

The doorway is in the middle of the front, under a small lean-to roof of pantiles (geya) that keeps rain off the doors. The doors themselves are plastered and open outward in two leaves. The walls are plastered all over, and a single drip ledge (mizukiri) runs around them partway up, shedding water away from the wall below. On the white surface it reads as one clean horizontal line.

There is no ornament to speak of. What the front offers instead is an orderly set of everything a storehouse needs: steps, lean-to, plastered doors and drip ledge, laid out neatly for a modern shrine store.

Visiting the Minase Shrine Treasure House

The Minase Shrine Treasure House holds ritual objects, and its interior is not open to the public. You can see the exterior from the grounds. Because it faces north, the steps, lean-to and plastered doors are best seen by heading to the southwest corner and looking at the building from the north side.

If access to the area around it is roped off, stay back and view it from a distance. The shrine does not publish a specific photography policy. Directions and hours for the grounds are on the Minase Shrine page.