Osasahara Shrine

Osasahara Shrine

Osasahara Shrine (大笹原神社) in Oshinohara, Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, has a main hall of 1414 designated a National Treasure on April 27, 1961, and the main hall of its precinct shrine, the Shinohara Shrine (1427), designated as an Important Cultural Property (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The main hall was also designated under the former law in 1901, and the Shinohara hall in 1931.

According to the Agency, the shrine is said to have been founded in 986, was once called Oji-sha or Gozu Tenno-sha, and took its present name in the early Meiji era. The shrine name is written Osasahara and the place name Oshinohara.

Two Main Halls

The main hall, dated 1414 by its ridge tags, is three bays square under a hip-and-gable cypress-bark roof. Its interior is divided into three sanctuaries, and it is richly carved, with frog-leg struts, panels and side screens; the Agency counts it as outstanding in design even among the many fine medieval shrine halls of Shiga.

The Shinohara hall, built 13 years later, is a small one-bay kasuga-style shrine with a cypress-bark roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each property is described on its own page.

Visiting

No official information on visiting or access was found.