Mikami Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Shrine Main Hall

A Small Kamakura Shrine Beside the Main Hall

The Mikami Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Shrine Main Hall (御上神社摂社若宮神社本殿) is the main hall of an auxiliary shrine of the late Kamakura period in the grounds of Mikami Shrine, Mikami, Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on January 19, 1931 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 1-bay shrine in the nagare-zukuri style with a cypress-bark roof (hiwadabuki), dated to the late Kamakura period (1275 to 1332); designation number 00873.

Wakamiya Shrine is an auxiliary shrine (sessha) of Mikami Shrine, standing to the left as you face the shrine's main hall; the auxiliary Sannomiya Shrine stands to the right, so the main hall is flanked by a small shrine on each side (Mikami Shrine precinct map).

How the Shrine Is Built

In the nagare style, a veranda runs around the inner sanctum, and the front slope of the roof is drawn out over the front steps to shelter the place of worship, giving the roof its long, flowing line. The style is found all over Japan, and the one-bay form is the most common type after the three-bay one, according to the shrine.

The shrine describes it as medium in size, with a low platform floor (hamayuka), an old-fashioned feature. Simple boat-shaped bracket arms (funahijiki) sit on the round posts of the sanctum, while the front porch (kohai) has square posts with broad chamfers carrying three-bearing bracket sets, tied back to the sanctum posts by curved connecting beams.

At the center of the porch is a frog-leg strut (kaerumata) in an early form, its inner carving kept very simple. Overall it is a clear, restrained building with little ornament (Mikami Shrine).

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Mikami Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Shrine Main Hall on stylistic grounds to the same Kamakura-period phase as the Mikami Shrine main hall, and values it with the main hall, worship hall and gate for preserving the look of a fourteenth-century shrine precinct.

It was designated on January 19, 1931, 32 years after the main hall, worship hall and gate were listed in 1899 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). That even this small auxiliary shrine survives from the same period is part of what gives the precinct its value. The Wakamiya Shrine main hall was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1931.

What to Look For

Look at the frog-leg strut on the porch from the front. The carving inside its legs is minimal, quite unlike the elaborate openwork of later centuries.

The auxiliary Sannomiya Shrine on the other side of the main hall, a Muromachi-period building designated by Shiga Prefecture, is also a one-bay nagare-style shrine with a very similar structure, but its frog-leg strut is filled with openwork peonies (Mikami Shrine). Seen one after the other, the two show how decoration changed within the same building type.

Small as it is, the shrine shares the plain methods of the main hall's era: round sanctum posts, bracket arms of the simplest kind and a low platform floor.

Visiting the Wakamiya Shrine

The Mikami Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Shrine Main Hall stands to the left of the main hall, and its exterior can be seen when you visit. The grounds are open for worship 24 hours a day, free of charge (Mikami Shrine; Yasu Tourism Association).

No official information was found on interior access or on how close visitors may approach, and no photography rule specific to this building is posted.

Directions and general visiting information are on the Mikami Shrine page.