One Hall, an Important Cultural Property since 1904
Kuwanomidera Temple Main Hall (桑実寺本堂, Kuwanomidera Hondo) stands at Kuwanomidera, Azuchi, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture, listed as an Important Cultural Property on 18 February 1904. The listing is as an Important Cultural Property, not a National Treasure, and the owner is the temple.
The quantity is one building and the designation number 00304. The structure is five bays by six, single-storeyed, hip-and-gable, roofed in cypress bark.
18 February 1904 is the day the sea-beast mirror became an Important Cultural Property. That property moved to National Treasure in 1953; this one remains an Important Cultural Property.
The Commentary Field Is Empty
The Agency's record carries no explanatory text at all.
The commentary field holds nothing. The fields for founding and history, and for ridge tablets, ink inscriptions and other matters of note, are empty as well.
With the gilded mirror, one sentence read: material of the Kofun period. With the Rai Kunimitsu blade: a work of the Kamakura period.
Both were brief, but both had a sentence. This one has none.
The structural field, by contrast, is full: bays across and deep, the roof form and the roofing material are all given. The date field reads early Muromachi.
The weight of the record falls very unevenly across its fields. With no commentary, the structural field alone conveys what the building is.
The Year Is Given as a Span of Fifty-Nine Years
The date appears as a range.
The period field and the date field both read early Muromachi.
The year field gives 1333 to 1392: a span of fifty-nine years.
With the tsujigahana haori, the range ran 1601 to 1700, a hundred years, and disagreed with the era named beside it.
Here the era named and the years given agree. There is no discrepancy.
At the Yoichi distillery the dates read about 1935, and at Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine about 1739: approximations marked as such. Giving a range is a different method.
Deeper Than It Is Wide
The building runs longer front to back than across.
The structural field gives five bays across the front and six bays deep.
Five against six: the depth exceeds the width by one bay.
At Otonashi Shrine, the offering hall was one bay across and three deep. That is a narrow building linking the worship hall to the main hall.
This is a main hall, where an image is enshrined and worshippers enter, and it runs deeper than it is wide.
The worship hall at Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine is seven bays by three, and that at Otonashi Shrine three by two: both wider than deep. This one runs the other way.
Visiting
The hall stands at Kuwanomidera, Azuchi, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture, owned by the temple.
The roof is of cypress bark. At the Kozanji Buddha hall, copper sheet was laid over boarding on the lower roof; at Otonashi Shrine, the roofs were shingled. Cypress bark roofing lays bark in overlapping layers.
By the record of the pilgrimage association for this circuit, the temple stands halfway up the western slope of a mountain of 433 metres, some 500 metres up a paved path of natural stone from the village below.
The same source describes the main hall as plain and old in feeling, simple and yet graceful. With no commentary from the Agency, accounts of the building's appearance come from sources such as this.
The temple lies in the hills and the approach is by stone steps. Access follows the temple's own arrangements. Check before travelling.
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Q&A
- When was the hall listed?
- On 18 February 1904, as an Important Cultural Property rather than a National Treasure. The quantity is one building and the designation number 00304.
- What commentary accompanies it?
- None. The commentary field is empty, as is the field for founding and history. The structural field, however, gives the bays, the roof form and the roofing material.
- When was it built?
- The period field reads early Muromachi and the year field gives 1333 to 1392, a span of fifty-nine years. No single year is recorded.
- What size is it?
- Five bays across and six deep, so the depth exceeds the width by one bay. It is single-storeyed, hip-and-gable, roofed in cypress bark.
- Where is it?
- At Kuwanomidera, Azuchi, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture. The pilgrimage association records it as halfway up the western slope of a mountain of 433 metres.
Basic Information
| Name | Kuwanomidera Temple Main Hall (桑実寺本堂, Kuwanomidera Hondo); the Agency's commentary field is empty |
|---|---|
| Location | Kuwanomidera, Azuchi, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structure, pre-modern temple), designation no. 00304; not a National Treasure |
| Year Designated | 1904 (18 February), Important Cultural Property |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 5 bays across and 6 deep, single-storeyed, hip-and-gable, roofed in cypress bark. The depth exceeds the width by 1 bay. The period and date fields read early Muromachi, and the year field gives 1333 to 1392, a span of 59 years |
| Owner | Kuwanomidera |
| Public Access | A temple in the hills approached by stone steps; access follows the temple's own arrangements |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs database: Kuwanomidera main hall
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/1475
- The Yakushi pilgrimage association: Kuwanomidera, no. 46
- https://yakushi49.jp/46kuwanomidera/
- Shiga Prefecture: cultural properties
- https://www.shiga-bunkazai.jp/
- Cultural Heritage Online
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/
Last verified: 2026.09.07