Shima Shrine Worship Hall

What Is the Shima Shrine Worship Hall?

The Shima Shrine Worship Hall (志磨神社拝殿, Shima Jinja Haiden) is a 1944 worship hall in the grounds of Shima Shrine in Nakanoshima, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 6, 2024.

A haiden, or worship hall, is the building where visitors stand to pray and where rites are performed in front of the main sanctuary. The national database lists this one as a single-story timber building with a copper-sheet roof and a building area of 93 square meters, renovated in 1967. It stands at the head of the approach, just south of the main sanctuary.

The Shima Shrine Worship Hall is more than one roof. Wakayama Prefecture describes it as three parts: the worship hall proper at the front, a norito-den behind it where prayers are recited, and a shinsen-sho at the northwest corner where food offerings for the deity are prepared.

Why the Shima Shrine Worship Hall Was Registered

The hall was registered in the 106th round of registrations as number 30-0344, under the criterion of serving as a model of its kind of design. The temizusha and the gate with flanking walls, registered the same day, qualified instead for their contribution to the historic landscape. Of the three, only the Shima Shrine Worship Hall was registered on the strength of its design.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out its Kaerumata braces and the carved patterns on its Kōryō tie beams as evidence of a well-ordered design. The prefecture likewise notes the good timber and carefully finished detail.

It was built in 1944, in wartime. The next year the 1945 air raid on Wakayama devastated the city center, but Shima Shrine came through, and the hall with it. The prefecture counts it, along with the temizusha and the gate, among the few well-made modern buildings in traditional Japanese style that survive in central Wakayama.

What to Look For at the Shima Shrine Worship Hall

The Cusped Gable over the Entrance

The main block measures five bays across and three deep, under a hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri roof with the entrance on the long side. A porch, or Kōhai, projects from the front, and its roof ends in a Noki-karahafu, the gable that swells upward into a gentle curve at the center. The porch is three bays wide, covering the middle three of the five front bays, so the curve of the karahafu sits squarely against the larger roof behind it. That layered profile is the face of the building.

Carved Beams and Braces

Stand under the porch and look up. The tie beams spanning the posts carry carved scrollwork along their sides, and above them sit kaerumata, the splayed "frog-leg" braces. These are the details the national commentary praised. They reward a close look for the sureness of the carving rather than for any showiness.

Coffered Ceiling, Veranda, and the Prayer Hall Behind

Inside, the ceiling is a Gō-tenjō grid of coffers. Outside, a Kirime-en veranda runs across the front and both sides, while the back of the hall joins the norito-den.

The norito-den has a ryosage roof, pitched front and back with its gable end attached to the worship hall, and the shinsen-sho has a simple Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof. Walk around the side and you can see the norito-den roof continuing behind the big hipped-and-gabled roof, which makes the three-part plan easy to read.

Visiting the Shima Shrine Worship Hall

The exterior of the Shima Shrine Worship Hall can be seen from the approach. From the front you get the karahafu porch; walking along the side of the grounds shows the veranda and the link to the norito-den. The interior is used for rites and prayers, and no public opening is advertised, so expect to glimpse the coffered ceiling only from the front while paying your respects.

No photography rules are published. Since this is where worshippers pray, avoid lingering in front of the hall with a camera and refrain during ceremonies. Directions to the shrine and general visiting information are on the Shima Shrine page.