Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha

A Large Purification Pavilion Moved from Yasukuni Shrine

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha (伴林氏神社手水舎, Tomobayashi-no-uji-no-jinja Temizusha) is the purification pavilion outside the great torii of Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine in Hayashi 3-chome, Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, brought from Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and re-erected in 1941, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on June 29, 2022. It is a single-story timber building with a copper-sheet roof and a building area of 18 square meters.

A temizusha shelters the basin where worshippers rinse their hands and mouths before approaching the gods. It is usually open on all four sides.

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha has an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof in copper. Its eaves use two tiers of fukiyose rafters, set in small clusters with a gap between each group. At every corner, instead of a single post, three round columns stand together, twelve in all. Above the head rail (Nageshi) runs a Ranma transom of slender vertical slats.

Why the Pavilion Was Registered, and Where It Came From

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha is registration number 27-0862 and was listed as a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as an unusually large pavilion of refined modern design, and values it as a surviving structure from Yasukuni Shrine.

The pavilion came to Fujiidera when the shrine was being rebuilt as the "Yasukuni of the West" around 1940. Fujiidera City's tourism page says it was originally built at Yasukuni in 1872. The Agency's database, however, gives its date as 1941, so the construction year depends on which source you follow.

Work continued after the move: the Agency records refurbishments in 1983 and 1996. Osaka Bunkazai Navi notes that the columns are cypress and that the original cypress-bark roof was replaced with flat-seamed copper.

What to Look For at the Temizusha

Count the columns at the corners first. On Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha, each corner post is split into a cluster of three round columns. Twelve columns under one small roof give the pavilion a density you rarely see in a purification shelter.

Raise your eyes to the slatted transom above the head rail, which lightens the upper half of the structure, and then to the eaves, where the clustered rafters set up a steady beat.

Osaka Bunkazai Navi calls it exceptionally large for its type. When several people stand at the basin at once, the generous roof makes sense for a pavilion first built to serve the crowds at Yasukuni. From its west side the worship hall roof appears behind it.

Visiting the Temizusha

Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine Temizusha stands on the west side of the approach, just before the great torii. Anyone may use it before praying, and since it has no walls, the columns, transom and eaves can be studied freely from outside.

The shrine publishes no photography rules; choose a quiet moment so that you do not get in the way of people using the basin. Directions and hours are on the Tomobayashi no Uji Shrine page.