Mikami Shrine

An Ancient Shrine at the Foot of Mount Mikami

The Mikami Shrine (御上神社, Mikami Jinja) stands at the western foot of Mount Mikami in Mikami, Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture; its Kamakura-period main hall was designated a National Treasure in 1952, and its worship hall, two-storey gate and Wakamiya subsidiary shrine are Important Cultural Properties.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it is an ancient shrine listed in the Engishiki as a major shrine, in the basin of the Yasu River.

The Agency values the four buildings, main hall, worship hall, gate and subsidiary shrine, as preserving the appearance of a fourteenth-century shrine precinct.

The Four Buildings

According to the Agency, the main hall is a relatively simple hip-and-gable building three bays square, with boat-shaped bracket arms only at the corners. Its style points to the Kamakura period; it is among the older surviving shrine buildings, and a hip-and-gable shrine hall is unusual.

The worship hall, a simple building ringed by a veranda, is thought to date from the same period. The gate is a two-storey gate three bays by two on both floors, the upper floor narrower between posts; an ink inscription on the upper floor dates it to about 1365.

The Wakamiya subsidiary shrine is a small one-bay nagare-style hall with a cypress-bark roof, also thought to be of the same period as the main hall.

A Medieval Shrine Precinct

Main hall, worship hall, gate and subsidiary shrine all survive from the Kamakura and Nanbokucho periods, together conveying the layout of a medieval shrine.

The hip-and-gable main hall, rare among shrine buildings, gives it particular cultural-historical significance.

Visiting Mikami Shrine

No official visitor information could be found.

Please follow the shrine's guidance when visiting.