Omi Shrine Office I

Three Doors, Three Ranks

Omi Jingu Shamusho I (近江神宮社務所Ⅰ, also written Ōmi Jingū Shamusho Ichi), the east and south wings of the shrine office at Omi Jingu in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, was built in 1940 and was placed on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties in 1998.

The shrine office is planned as a hollow square, a courtyard building whose four wings enclose an inner court. The register splits it in two. Shamusho I covers the east and south wings; the north and west wings are registered separately as Shamusho II. At 246 square metres, this is the largest single entry among the shrine's registered buildings.

The east wing runs north to south under an irimoya hipped-and-gabled roof. The south wing joins it at right angles, and its ridge is deliberately set lower.

How the Building States Its Hierarchy

Three entrances open off these two wings, and each is pitched at a different social register.

At the centre of the east face a carriage porch projects under a kara-hafu, the undulating gable with a raised centre and dipped ends that Japanese architecture reserves for entrances of consequence. This is the guest of honour's door. To its right lies the reception room; to its left, a side entrance and the office of the chief priest.

The south wing is given over mainly to clerical offices, and at the centre of its south face sits the everyday entrance, the door used by staff going about ordinary business. Lowering the ridge of this wing states its position without a word of explanation.

Registration came on 9 October 1998, number 25-0083, under the criterion that the building serves as a model of design. It belongs to the first construction campaign of 1940, the year Omi Jingu was founded to enshrine Emperor Tenji, who moved the capital to Otsu in 667. The complex was planned within the Home Ministry's Shrine Bureau, with Sunami Takashi and Tani Shigeo credited as its designers.

What to Look For

The curved gable over the carriage porch is the thing to find, and it is easier to appreciate once you have seen the entrance block of the assembly hall a short distance west, which uses a triangular dormer gable instead. Two porches, two shapes, two levels of formality, built four years apart within sight of one another.

Note also the copper roof. The north and west wings of the same courtyard are tiled, a division of materials that follows the division of function between formal front and domestic rear.

The shrine office is a working building and the interior is closed to visitors. Anyone with shrine business, such as arranging a wedding or a formal prayer, will pass through it, but casual sightseeing inside is not possible. The exterior can be seen from the paths in the northern part of the grounds, and photographing it from outside is unrestricted.

The grounds are open daily from 6:00 to 18:00 without charge. Prayers are conducted between 9:30 and 16:00, and amulets and seal stamps are available from 9:00 to 16:30. Omi-jingu-mae station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line is about nine minutes away on foot, and 200 free parking spaces are available outside the New Year period.