Tarobogu Aga Shrine

Tarobogu Aga Shrine

Tarobogu Aga Shrine (太郎坊宮阿賀神社) in Owakicho, Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, stands on a mountain west of the town centre; 15 of its structures, from the main hall of 1753 to the first torii at the start of the approach, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The main hall faces east on the southern flank of a rock peak, and a copper torii stands before the cleft in the rock that leads to it. The Agency describes the torii as a symbol of the heart of the ancient worship of sacred rocks.

The Fifteen Structures

At the centre of the precinct are the worship pavilion of 1924, whose roof merges with the main hall; the stage of 1880, built out from a rock ledge; the worship hall from the end of the Edo period, a rare early building here; and the kagura hall of the mid-Meiji period behind it, with an amulet office of the same period set into a hollow in the rock and a purification pavilion of 1911 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Below the cliff south of the worship hall, the Eianden of 1907, a kagura hall and shrine office, and the Chorakuden of 1930, a meeting hall, line the stone steps, facing a storehouse of 1938. At the foot of the precinct are an ema hall of 1925 designed by an engineer of Nara Prefecture, and a pavilion of 1930 and a gate of 1934 made entirely of granite, which show the high standard of early Showa stonemasonry (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

A stone torii of 1894 marks the entrance of the approach beside an old highway (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

The shrine owns all fifteen (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The precinct climbs the mountainside by stone steps along the rock peak. No official information on visiting hours or access was found.