Namura Shrine

Namura Shrine: One Shrine, Two Wooded Precincts

Namura Shrine (苗村神社, Namura Jinja) is an ancient shrine at Ayado, Ryuo Town, Gamo District, Shiga Prefecture, whose West Main Hall, rebuilt in 1308, was designated a National Treasure in 1955, while five further buildings, the East Main Hall, the two-storey gate, the portable shrine storehouse and the Hachiman and Juzenji precinct shrines, are Important Cultural Properties.

The shrine identifies itself with Nagamura (長寸, read "Namura") Shrine, which appears in the Engishiki register of shrines compiled in the early tenth century, and it has long served as the head shrine for 33 surrounding villages. That identification is not settled. Another shrine of the same name stands in neighbouring Hino Town, and the Shiga Prefectural Association for Cultural Heritage leaves the question open.

The present name has its own story. According to documents kept at Namura Shrine, in the first month of 1017 the shrine presented young pine saplings to the court for New Year decorations, and Emperor Go-Ichijo rewarded it with the title Namura, written with the characters for "seedling" and "village".

Why Namura Shrine Has Two Main Halls

Shrine tradition holds that the founders of the district first enshrined their ancestral spirits on the east side of the sacred grounds; that shrine later came to be called the East Main Hall. In 969 the deity Kuni-no-Satsuchi was brought from Mount Kinpu in Yoshino, in the old province of Yamato, and a new hall was raised to the west. That is the West Main Hall.

The result puzzles first-time visitors: two main halls, each in its own grove, with a prefectural road running between them.

The shrine's records also note that in 1536 Emperor Go-Nara granted Namura Shrine the highest court rank for a deity, senior first rank, and sent the courtiers Nakamikado Munefuji and Yamashina Tokitsugu as his envoys. During the Tensho era (1573–1592) the warlord Oda Nobunaga is recorded as donating a saddle and 7 swords.

Walking the Grounds of Namura Shrine

Start on the west side. The thatched two-storey gate faces the car park. Pass through it and the portable shrine storehouse is on your right, with the worship hall straight ahead.

Behind the worship hall, to the right, a fence encloses the inner sanctuary. The West Main Hall stands at its centre, flanked by the Hachiman shrine on the left and the Juzenji shrine on the right as you face them. Visitors cannot go inside the fence, so all three are seen from outside it. A Fudo hall on the west side survives from the centuries when Buddhist and Shinto worship were combined here.

Cross the road for the east precinct. There is no gate. A path winds between the trees to the East Main Hall. The uneven ground around it is the Higashi-Namura burial mound group: the Shiga Prefectural Association for Cultural Heritage notes 8 round mounds on the prefecture's site map, unexcavated and thought to date from the late Kofun period.

Six Buildings, Designated over Seven Decades

The buildings of Namura Shrine were listed at very different times. Agency for Cultural Affairs records show the West Main Hall designated first, in 1902, followed by the gate and the Hachiman shrine in 1904 and the East Main Hall in 1924. The storehouse and the Juzenji shrine were added in 1971. The West Main Hall became a National Treasure in 1955.

The Agency dates the West Main Hall to the late Kamakura period, the East Main Hall and both precinct shrines to the mid-Muromachi period, the gate to 1522 and the storehouse to 1536. It singles out the divided grounds, each with its own main hall, and the survival of so many medieval buildings together.

Festivals at Namura Shrine

The main festival, the Namura Matsuri, falls on the third Sunday of April, with rites at 3:00 p.m. and the procession at 4:00 p.m. Two days earlier the portable shrines are brought out and decorated; on the day, 10 sacred horses and 3 portable shrines from 9 village guilds process to the temporary shrine outside the grounds.

On 5 May the Sekku festival includes horseback archery and horse racing, and on 3 August a large fire ritual is held for Fudo Myoo.

Once every 33 years the shrine holds a grand festival said to date from 1599. The 13th took place in 2014 and the next is planned for October 2046.

Getting to Namura Shrine and Visiting

Namura Shrine says anyone may visit freely. The Biwako Visitors Bureau, Shiga's tourism organisation, lists visiting hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., no admission charge, and parking for 20 cars and 5 buses. No official guidance was found on opening the halls' interiors or on photography.

By train, go to Omi-Hachiman Station on the JR Biwako Line. From the north exit, an Ohmi Railway bus bound for the outlet park reaches Ayado-kita in about 15 minutes, 2 minutes' walk from the shrine. From the south exit, the bus for Daihatsu Ryuo stops at Kawamori after about 20 minutes, leaving a 15-minute walk. A taxi from the station takes about 15 minutes.

By car, the shrine is about 10 minutes from either the Ryuo interchange or the Gamo Smart interchange on the Meishin Expressway. The shrine office can be reached on 0748-57-0160.