Nogami Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Kora Tamadare Shrine Main Hall

What the Kora Tamadare Auxiliary Sanctuary Is

The Nogami Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Kora Tamadare Shrine Main Hall (野上八幡宮摂社高良玉垂神社本殿) is the sanctuary of an auxiliary shrine at Nogami Hachiman Shrine in Obata, Kimino Town, Wakayama Prefecture, built in 1578 and designated an Important Cultural Property on September 5, 1944.

The name reads Kōra Tamadare Jinja, and the shrine romanises its own title as Nokami Hachimangū, so the full designated name appears elsewhere as Nokami Hachimangū Sessha Kōra Tamadare Jinja Honden. The hall is a single-bay sanctuary in the Nagare-zukuri style roofed with thick wooden shingle, and one Munafuda is included in the designation as an attached item.

Of the five designated buildings on this hilltop, this is the youngest. The main hall of the shrine went up in 1572, so roughly six years separate the two. Line the dates up and you can watch the reconstruction of the burnt shrine move outward in stages, from the central sanctuary to the auxiliary halls around it.

Nogami Hachiman Shrine became a branch sanctuary of Iwashimizu Hachimangū in 987 and held a wide following across northern Kii. A Kōra sanctuary is the kind of hall that has often stood inside precincts devoted to Hachiman.

Why the Kora Tamadare Sanctuary Was Designated

The Nogami Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Kora Tamadare Shrine Main Hall was designated an Important Cultural Property on September 5, 1944, together with the main hall, the worship hall and the two other auxiliary sanctuaries. Its designation number is 01072, the last of the five.

Small single-bay sanctuaries in the nagare-zukuri style exist across Japan in uncountable numbers. What narrows the field is a firm date of 1578 combined with survival alongside the rest of the shrine's rebuilt buildings. The listing treats this hall less as an isolated work than as the closing chapter of a rebuilding programme.

The roofing counts as part of what is protected. The other four buildings here divide between cypress bark and heavy ceramic tile; this sanctuary alone is shingled. That three roofing methods still sit side by side in one precinct is itself evidence that each repair kept to the original specification instead of standardising the group.

What to Look For at the Kora Tamadare Sanctuary

Get close to the roof. Tochibuki is laid from thick split boards, far heavier stock than the paper-thin material of Kokerabuki, which uses shingles a few millimetres thick. The surface never smooths out the way cypress bark does. The board ends step down in ranks and throw a row of small shadows along the eaves, a texture that photographs poorly and repays standing in front of the real thing.

The form is a single-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary, the same as the neighbouring Takeuchi hall. Same shape, same footprint, and yet one is roofed in bark and the other in shingle. Seeing the pair in one glance shows how completely a roofing material governs the character of a building. Anyone visiting the Nogami Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Kora Tamadare Shrine Main Hall should look at the two together.

Kōra sanctuaries inside Hachiman precincts are not unique to this hilltop. The Wakayama prefectural list also records an auxiliary Kōra sanctuary at Hiro Hachiman Shrine in Hirogawa Town. The pairing of a Hachiman shrine with a Kōra hall repeats across the province, and this small building in Kimino Town is one instance of it.

Visiting the Kora Tamadare Auxiliary Sanctuary

No conditions attach to a visit. The precinct is open and no admission is set. The Nogami Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Kora Tamadare Shrine Main Hall is viewed from outside, but you can stand near enough to read how the roof was laid. Whether the interior is ever opened, the shrine's website does not say.

To photograph the shingled surface, come early or late. Light striking the eaves from the side lifts the stepped board ends into relief. The shrine permits snapshots taken with a hand-held camera or a phone, while refusing commemorative shoots with a professional photographer, unauthorised pictures of worshippers, and model shoots.

Prayer rites are received from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day of the year, on prior contact by telephone or through the enquiry form on the shrine's website.

Two routes serve the site: a Daijū bus from Kainan Station on the JR Kisei Line, about 20 minutes to the Nogami Hachimangū stop, or a drive of some 15 minutes from the Kainan or Kainan-Higashi interchange on the Hanwa Expressway along the Sakai bypass. Parking runs to four or five spaces for worshippers and may be closed on festival days. The approach is a stone stairway and the ground inside the precinct is uneven.