Omi Shrine Office II

The Domestic Half of the Courtyard

Omi Jingu Shamusho II (近江神宮社務所Ⅱ, also written Ōmi Jingū Shamusho Ni), the north and west wings of the shrine office at Omi Jingu in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, was built in 1940 and was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties in 1998.

Where the east and south wings of this courtyard building handle guests and paperwork, the north and west wings handle living. The north wing holds two rooms of ten and eight mats, laid out to serve as an annexe to the priests' residence further up the slope. The west wing contains the kitchen and bathroom and is roofed as a hipped structure in tile.

The whole comes to 175 square metres.

A Gable That Vents Steam

The most quietly satisfying thing about this building is what happens where the two wings meet.

The ridge of the north wing is carried higher than that of the west wing. Rather than stopping where the two roofs intersect, it continues past the west wing's ridge and emerges on the west face as a chidori-hafu, a triangular dormer gable. Elsewhere in this precinct that form is ceremonial: the assembly hall entrance uses one over its carriage porch to mark the arrival of guests. Here it sits directly above the bath, and its purpose is to let steam out.

The same shape, deployed once for dignity and once for ventilation. Shrine architecture of this period is often described as formal to the point of stiffness, and the description does not survive close reading of a building like this one.

Shamusho II was registered on 9 October 1998, number 25-0084, under the criterion that it serves as a model of design. It dates from the first construction campaign of 1940, the year the shrine was founded to enshrine Emperor Tenji, and belongs to a complex planned by the Home Ministry's Shrine Bureau under Sunami Takashi and Tani Shigeo.

What to Look For

Look at the roofs before anything else. Shamusho I, the east and south wings, is copper. Shamusho II is tile. The change of material follows the change from formal front to domestic rear, and once you notice it you will start noticing the same logic across the precinct: cypress bark on the sanctuary, copper on the ceremonial buildings, tile where the work of daily life is done.

The dormer gable on the west face is worth walking round for, though sight lines are limited and the building is not on the main visitor route.

The interior is closed. Shamusho II houses functions that belong to the private life of the shrine, and there is no arrangement under which visitors go inside. The exterior can be glimpsed from paths in the northern part of the grounds, and photography from outside is unrestricted.

The grounds are open 6:00 to 18:00 with no admission fee. Omi-jingu-mae station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line is a nine-minute walk, and there are 200 free parking spaces outside the New Year period.