Oka Shrine

A Shrine Named in the Engishiki

Oka Shrine (乎加神社, Oka Jinja) is a Shinto shrine in Jingocho, Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, entered in the register of shrines in the Engishiki of 927, and six structures in its precinct, grouped around a main hall set up here in 1892, were each registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 18 March 2003. The first character of the name, 乎, is an archaic spelling of the sound o, and the Higashiomi Tourism Association says only two shrines in Japan write "Oka" with these two characters.

Nobody is sure where the name comes from. One explanation ties it to the hill (oka) of Wadayama where the deity was first worshipped; another derives it from the name of the principal deity, Toyookahime-no-Mikoto. The Shiga Prefectural Association of Shinto Shrines lists two enshrined deities, Toyookahime (豊岡姫命) and Shirayamahime (白山比咩神), and gives the shrine crest as a left-turning triple comma, the hidari mitsudomoe.

The shrine's own account of its origins runs long. It says the deity was installed here at the prayer of Sotoorihime, a consort of Emperor Ingyo; that Emperor Tenji later granted it land; and that Emperor Saga founded a Buddhist temple attached to the shrine and endowed the two with 300 koku of rice income. In the Edo period the Ota family supported it and paid for new buildings. In 1916 it was raised to the rank of prefectural shrine. These are traditions kept by the shrine rather than facts confirmed in contemporary records, and they are best read that way.

A Main Hall That Came from Ise

The layout a visitor sees today took shape in 1892. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Main Hall is said to have been a building of one of the auxiliary sanctuaries at Ise Jingu, handed on to Oka Shrine when Ise carried out its periodic rebuilding in 1889 and re-erected here three years later. Ise renews its sanctuaries on a twenty-year cycle, and the buildings it retires have long been passed to other shrines. The Offering Hall, the Norito Hall and the Tamagaki Fence are recorded as work of the same year, so the inner compound around the Main Hall was completed as a single project. The Worship Hall and the Purification Pavilion followed somewhat later in the Meiji era.

All six were registered together on 18 March 2003, under the consecutive registration numbers 25-0209 through 25-0214. Two of them, the fence and the purification pavilion, are classed not as buildings but as other constructed works.

The six were not registered for the same reason. The Main Hall and the Offering Hall meet the criterion of serving as a model of design: the plain Shinmei-zukuri sanctuary from Ise and the ornate hall that faces it are treated as reference examples of modern shrine building. The other four meet the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape, valued less as individual designs than for the way they complete the ensemble.

That pairing of old and new is what makes the precinct worth the walk. An unpainted sanctuary in the Ise manner stands at the head of the axis, and in front of it are Meiji halls with a cusped gable porch, lozenge-lattice transoms and carved brackets. The two approaches to shrine architecture sit side by side at the end of a single approach path.

How the Precinct Is Laid Out

The grounds cover about 3,300 tsubo of shrine forest, and the six registered structures line up one behind another on the axis of the approach. One slow walk from the entrance to the back is enough to see them all.

The Purification Pavilion comes first, near the entrance. Beyond it, straight ahead, is the Worship Hall, which has no raised floor at all, only packed earth. Behind that stretches the long Offering Hall, with a porch under a cusped gable projecting from the middle of its front. Behind the Offering Hall, the small Norito Hall links it to the Main Hall, which stands at the very back and noticeably taller than everything in front of it.

The Tamagaki Fence closes off that inner compound. It runs out a short distance from either end of the Offering Hall, turns, and wraps around the Main Hall and the Norito Hall, 52 metres in all. Worshippers stay outside it.

Smaller shrines within the precinct include Hiyoshi, Wakamiya, Gosha and Yasaka. The shrine land also takes in the Jingo Kamezuka Tumulus, a Shiga Prefecture Historic Site that local people have long called Kameyama, "turtle hill". Excavation showed it to be a mound with a square rear and a projecting front, about 37 metres long, built at the transition from the Yayoi period to the Kofun period. Pottery used in rites was found in a ditch on its west side, evidence that the mound was venerated over a long period.

The Spring Festival

The annual festival falls on the Sunday nearest 9 April. The prefectural shrine association notes that on the festival day itself only the rites may be held, with the portable shrine and other events sometimes moved to another day, so anyone planning a visit around the festival should check the date with the shrine first.

Visiting and Getting There

Oka Shrine is a local tutelary shrine, and the grounds are open for visitors to walk. The Higashiomi Tourism Association lists no admission fee and no set hours. None of the six registered structures opens its interior to the public; they are seen from the precinct. The forest canopy keeps the grounds shaded, so come in good daylight.

The nearest station is Notogawa on the JR Biwako Line. The shrine lies about 2 kilometres east, roughly 25 minutes on foot. The walk leaves the residential streets by the station and crosses open fields, and the dark, rounded mass of the shrine forest ahead is the landmark to aim for.

Addresses differ between sources. The Agency for Cultural Affairs registers the site as 9 Mori, Jingocho, while the Higashiomi Tourism Association gives 1890 Jingocho. Either may help when searching a map.