Sumiyoshi Taisha Main Hall

Four sanctuaries facing the sea

Sumiyoshi Taisha Main Hall (住吉大社本殿, Sumiyoshi Taisha Honden) is the set of four sanctuaries, the First to the Fourth, at Sumiyoshi Taisha in Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, rebuilt in 1810, listed under the old shrines and temples law in 1902 and designated a National Treasure on 1953/11/14. All four are built in the Sumiyoshi-zukuri style with cypress-bark roofs, identical in form and size, and the sacred fences and gates around them are included in the designation.

The First Sanctuary enshrines Sokotsutsu-no-o, the Second Nakatsutsu-no-o, the Third Uwatsutsu-no-o, and the Fourth Empress Jingu. All four face west, toward the sea. From the west they stand in a single line, Third, Second, First, with the Fourth alongside the Third to its south. The national description recalls that this area was once a celebrated stretch of coast, and suggests that the Fourth Sanctuary was founded somewhat later than the other three.

What Sumiyoshi-zukuri means

The Sumiyoshi Taisha Main Hall is regarded as one of the oldest forms of shrine architecture. The roof is a simple gable, with the entrance in the gable end. Inside are two rooms, front and back, with large board doors at the front and between the rooms; everything else is board wall. All the posts are round and stand on foundation stones. The bargeboards and rafters are perfectly straight, the eaves are a single layer, and the gable is closed with plain crossed struts. The floor sits fairly low and there is no surrounding veranda, both signs of an early form, according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The shrine notes that the two-room plan has been compared to the halls built for the Daijosai, the ritual following an emperor's enthronement. The posts are vermilion and the walls white with shell-lime plaster, set off by gilded door fittings. Two fences enclose the halls closely; the inner one, of vertical boards fixed edge to edge, hides the lower half of each building. These fences, too, are of an old type.

Rebuilding every twenty years was the rule from the early Heian period, broken by war and revived in the early 17th century. After fire destroyed the sanctuaries in 1802, the four halls you see today were completed in 1810. For the 1800th anniversary of the shrine in 2011, the 49th rebuilding ceremony was marked by repainting the National Treasure halls.

What to look for, and visiting

Each sanctuary has an offering hall and corridor in front of it, each designated an Important Cultural Property, and worshippers pray in front of the offering hall. The interiors are not open, but from beside the offering halls you can see the straight bark roofs, the crossed chigi finials at each end and the katsuogi billets along the ridge. Walk round to the south of the Third Sanctuary to see the Third and Fourth side by side.

According to the shrine, there is no required order for visiting the four sanctuaries. The inner precinct closes at 5:00 p.m. all year and there is no charge; commercial photography is not permitted in the grounds. Opening hours and directions for the Sumiyoshi Taisha Main Hall are on the Sumiyoshi Taisha page.