Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall

What is the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall?

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall (鳥海山大物忌神社蕨岡口ノ宮本殿) is a large shrine sanctuary built in 1896 in Kamiwarabioka, Yuza Town, Yamagata Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2007.

Chōkaisan Ōmonoimi Shrine consists of a sanctuary on the summit of Mount Chōkai and two lowland shrines, at Fukura and at Warabioka. The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall is the principal building of the Warabioka site on the mountain's southwestern foothills. The name is also written Warabioka Kuchi-no-miya.

According to Yuza Town, Edo-period Warabioka was the most powerful of the pilgrim gateways to Mount Chōkai, a base for mountain ascetics organized as thirty-three lodgings under the temple Ryūzuji. The shrine stands near the middle of Kamiwarabioka, locally called Uwadera, a village that still keeps the look of those pilgrim lodgings.

The hall was built in 1896 under master carpenter Ono Jūkichi of Uwadera, and its ridge tablet, a giant board 3.7 meters tall, 55 centimeters wide, and 8.5 centimeters thick, survives. In 1953 it was relocated downhill to its present site; it originally stood on the hillside to the east.

The scale of the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall, and why it is registered

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall is three bays wide and six deep, with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri copper roof and a one-bay Kōhai canopy. Those bay counts are misleading: the front measures 13.8 meters, the depth 16.9 meters, and the floor stands more than 2.3 meters above the ground. With a footprint of 263 square meters, it was once known simply as the Ōdō, the Great Hall.

Inside, an outer and an inner chamber lead to an innermost sanctum. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the hall has little carving or painted decoration but uses massive timbers in a rectilinear design, and calls it grand. Yuza Town places its style in the Shinmei-zukuri lineage descended from the main sanctuary of Ise.

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape: a big, plain hall built by local carpenters in the Meiji era, facing south at the center of a former ascetics' village.

What to look for at the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall

Walk the approach to the third torii and the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall fills the view. Start with the width of the front. Each of the three bays spans more than 4 meters, and because heavy members meet in straight lines, the hall feels even bigger than its measurements.

Then note the height of the floor, easiest to judge standing under the canopy. The design relies on timber size and straight lines rather than ornament, so look at the thickness of the posts and beams.

Yuza Town also describes a plaque inscribed Kō Man Rikugō, light filling the six directions, a phrase from the heavenly rock cave episode of the Nihon Shoki. To mark the completion of the rebuilt hall, the calligraphy was requested from Katsu Kaishū, with Umezu Sogorō of Nozawa acting as go-between, and the carved panel was made by sculptor Sugawara Daisaburō of Kitame.

Visiting the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall is about 10 minutes by car from Yuza Station on the JR Uetsu Line, or about 20 minutes from the Sakata-Minato interchange on the Nihonkai-Tohoku Expressway. There is parking for around 20 cars. Admission is free and the grounds are open to worshippers.

The interior is not open. Pass through the second torii and the Zuishin Gate, walk on with the Kagura Hall to your right, and pray before the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Main Hall beyond the third torii. Inquiries and goshuin stamps for Warabioka are handled at the Fukura Kuchinomiya office, tel. 0234-77-2301.

The Warabioka annual festival, called Ōnbei-matsuri, is held on May 3 with performances of Warabioka Ennen. There is no official guidance on photography; refrain during rites. Note that the local tourism association gives the street number as 73 Matsugaoka, while the national database gives 51, so check your navigation carefully.