Juge Shrine Main Hall and Worship Hall (Auxiliary Shrine of Hiyoshi Taisha)

The Consort's Shrine, and Its Metalwork

The Juge Shrine Main Hall and Worship Hall, an auxiliary shrine of Hiyoshi Taisha in Sakamoto-honmachi, Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, are Momoyama-period buildings of 1595; the Main Hall was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1906 and the Worship Hall in 1964. The name is read Juge, not by the more obvious reading of its characters.

The deity is Kamotamayorihime no Kami, consort of Ōyamakui no Kami, who is enshrined in the eastern sanctuary a few steps away. Within the seven principal Sannō shrines this one is known as Jugegū. The relationship between husband and consort determines how this corner of the grounds is laid out.

The construction date of 1595 is the same year as the main hall of the eastern sanctuary. Both belong to the rebuilding that followed the burning of Mount Hiei in 1571, and this end of the precinct was therefore put together as a single campaign rather than piecemeal.

What the Fittings Say About Rank

The Main Hall is a nagare-zukuri sanctuary of three bays roofed in cypress bark, which the Ōtsu city description calls a large example of the type. Nagare-zukuri, with the front slope of the roof extended forward over the approach, is the commonest form for Shinto sanctuaries in Japan, but few are built at this width.

The metal fittings are the thing to look at. Ōtsu city singles out the lavish decorative metalwork as the defining feature of the Juge Shrine Main Hall. The same office describes the nearby Shirayamahime sanctuary, almost identical in form, as plainer and sparing in its fittings. The two were evidently built to different grades on purpose, and here the standing of the enshrined deity is expressed in metal rather than in timber.

The fittings are also practical. They cap nail heads, hold board joints down and, in doing so, catch the light and sharpen the outline of the building. This sanctuary looks noticeably different under an overcast sky than in direct sun.

A Latticed Worship Hall on a Crossed Axis

The Worship Hall is three bays square, single-storeyed, hip-and-gable roofed and entered from the gable end (Tsumairi). Most worship halls at Hiyoshi Taisha stand fully open, without walls on any side. This one, as Ōtsu city notes, is enclosed with lattice panels and latticed doors, neither shut nor open but somewhere between.

Through the lattice the interior columns and floor show as a dim pattern. From outside you can see a little of the inside; from inside you can see the outside clearly. Why the Juge Shrine Worship Hall alone should be treated this way, among so many open halls, is not explained in the surviving records.

The siting is unusual too. Pass through the tower gate of the eastern compound and the building squarely in front of you is this worship hall, with the sanctuary behind it. The main and worship halls of the eastern sanctuary sit turned away from that line. The consort's shrine occupies the axis of the approach while the husband's faces sideways, an arrangement that registers far more strongly on foot than on a plan.

Visiting

The Juge Shrine Main Hall and Worship Hall stand immediately inside the tower gate of the eastern compound and can be viewed freely once you are in the grounds. Admission is 500 yen for adults, 300 yen for junior and senior high school students, free for younger children, and 450 yen each for groups of thirty or more; drivers pay at the east reception desk.

General hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with the eastern compound opening at 6:00 a.m. from April to September and 7:00 a.m. from October to March. Both interiors are closed, so viewing is from outside, and photography is unrestricted. Morning light is the better light for reading the metalwork in detail.

The portable shrine belonging to Jugegū carries carved monkeys playing in pine branches, a motif the shrine documents; that object is an Important Cultural Property in its own right and is not on public display, unlike the buildings.

Sakamoto-Hieizanguchi Station on the Keihan Ishiyama Sakamoto Line is about ten minutes on foot from the shrine entrance and Hieizan-Sakamoto Station on the JR Kosei Line about twenty, with a further twenty-minute walk through the grounds from the red torii to the eastern compound. Around fifty free car spaces are available, charged during November.