Omi Shrine Outer Wall (south Part)

Five Bays Running Up to the North Gate

Omi Jingu Sotosukibei, South Section (近江神宮外透塀（南部）, also written Ōmi Jingū Sotosukibei Nanbu), a roofed slatted fence at Omi Jingu in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, was built in 1944 and was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties in 1998.

The naming needs a word of explanation. Two outer slatted fences meet at the north gate, and they are distinguished as south and north by their position relative to that gate rather than to the shrine as a whole. This one is the southern of the pair: it starts at the end of the outer colonnade's north arm and runs five bays to the gate.

Together with its northern counterpart it defines the east side of the northern part of the outer court, the ground around the north gate that continues on to the kagura hall and its corridor. Ten square metres, copper roof.

How a Roofed Fence Is Made

The construction is worth setting out because it is repeated across the precinct and this is one of the places you can inspect it from close range.

Square posts stand on a continuous sill rather than being set into the ground, which keeps the end grain of the timber clear of the damp. On the posts sit hakari-hijiki, balance-arm brackets, and these carry the small roof that runs the length of the fence. Between the posts, the space between the lower rail and the head rail is filled with a latticed window.

The result is a boundary that stops movement without stopping sight. Look through the lattice and you see the ground beyond; walk along it and you cannot cross. For a shrine precinct organised in nested enclosures, each one more restricted than the last, that is exactly the right instrument.

Registration came on 9 October 1998 under number 25-0073, with the criterion that it serves as a model of design. It belongs to the second campaign of 1944, and the complex was planned within the Home Ministry's Shrine Bureau by Sunami Takashi and Tani Shigeo. Omi Jingu was founded in 1940 to enshrine Emperor Tenji, who moved the capital to Otsu in 667.

What to Look For

This is the version of the slatted fence you can actually reach. The two fences enclosing the innermost court are roofed in cypress bark and stand where general visitors do not go; these outer ones are roofed in copper and stand on ground you can walk. If you want to understand how the shrine's fences are built, this is where to look.

Count the bays from the colonnade to the gate. Five here, four on the other side of the gate, an asymmetry driven by where things happened to stand rather than by any wish for balance.

Follow the roof line where the colonnade ends and the fence begins. The handover is deliberately smooth, and it is the sort of detail that rewards a slow walk.

The fence stands in the open and can be seen and photographed without restriction during shrine hours, 6:00 to 18:00, at no charge. Omi-jingu-mae station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line is a nine-minute walk, and 200 free parking spaces are available outside the New Year period.