Omi Shrine Visitors' Rest Area

A Rest House From 1944 That Still Takes Visitors

Omi Jingu Sanpaisha Kyukeijo (近江神宮参拝者休憩所, also written Ōmi Jingū Sanpaisha Kyūkeijo), the visitors' rest house at Omi Jingu in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, was built in 1944 and joined the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties in 1998.

It stands behind and to the left of the second torii, close enough to the approach that most people walk past without registering that the building is protected. Seventy-five square metres, single storey, tiled roof. The core is a simple gabled box, and eaves are carried around all four sides of it, which gives the building a low, sheltering profile quite unlike the ceremonial structures higher up the slope.

Of the twenty-odd registered buildings in this precinct, this is the one you can walk into and sit down in.

Round Posts, Bracket Arms, and Knotty Timber

Step inside and look up. The central bay carries a sao-buchi ceiling, flat boards held by slender battens, while the surrounding veranda area has no ceiling at all: the underside of the roof is left exposed and finished as a decorative surface, a treatment called kesho-koyaura. The change from one to the other maps the plan onto the roof.

The frame uses round posts with sashi-hijiki, bracket arms let into the post itself rather than stacked on top of it. Round posts in a rest house are unusual; they normally belong to buildings of higher rank.

The timber is the detail worth lingering over. Knotted stock was chosen deliberately and placed where the knots read well, rather than being culled in favour of clear grain. In 1944 that decision may have owed something to wartime shortages, though the placement is too considered to be simple thrift. The result is an interior with warmth in it.

The rest house was registered on 9 October 1998 under registration number 25-0089, with the criterion that it serves as a model of design. It belongs to the second construction campaign at the shrine, which was founded in 1940 to enshrine Emperor Tenji and laid out by the Home Ministry's Shrine Bureau under Sunami Takashi and Tani Shigeo.

Visiting

The building now operates as Jingu Saryo, a small sweets shop serving handmade dorayaki, shaved ice, and other confections to people breaking their walk. That means opening hours are the shop's rather than the shrine's, so it is worth checking before making a special trip; the grounds themselves are open from 6:00 to 18:00 with no admission charge. Ordering something is the ordinary courtesy if you want to sit and study the roof structure at length.

This is a rare chance. Almost everything else registered at Omi Jingu is either a fence, a corridor, a gate, or a working office closed to the public, and can only be read from the outside. Here the carpentry is at arm's length.

Combine the visit with the Clock Museum and Treasure House, open 9:30 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00, at 300 yen for adults and 150 yen for schoolchildren. Emperor Tenji is credited with installing Japan's first water clock in 671, which is why a shrine dedicated to him keeps a museum of timepieces.

Omi-jingu-mae station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto line is about nine minutes away on foot. There are 200 free parking spaces outside the New Year period.