Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate

What is the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate?

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate (鳥海山大物忌神社蕨岡口ノ宮随神門) is an eight-legged gate built in the late Edo period, between 1751 and 1829, in Kamiwarabioka, Yuza Town, Yamagata Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2007.

Zuishinmon means a gate of guardian attendants. The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate stands just past the second torii on the approach to Warabioka Kuchinomiya and faces west, so it is the first building visitors pass through.

It began life as a Niōmon, a Buddhist gate guarded by two fierce kings. Yuza Town explains that in the era when Shinto and Buddhism were combined, the shrine was known as Ōdōsha and the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate served as its Niō gate. After the separation of the two religions, the pair of guardian statues was moved in 1873 to the entrance of the main hall of Ryūzuji, the temple next door.

The gate is a single-storey wooden structure with a sheet-iron roof and a footprint of 48 square meters.

How the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate is built, and why it is registered

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate is three bays wide with a passage through the central bay. In an eight-legged gate, the four main posts on the center line are braced by posts in front and behind, eight in all. The roof is gabled Kirizuma-zukuri.

In each side bay, the front half has a raised floor screened by a vertical-slat grille, the kind of enclosure where guardian statues once stood. The posts are round and carry projecting bracket sets called demitsudo, with carved Kaerumata between them, and the eaves have two layers of closely spaced rafters.

The gables are framed with two tiers of Kōryō rainbow beams and a Taiheizuka post, and they project forward beyond the wall line.

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises it as a neat, soundly built gate in the traditional manner. As an Edo-period gate in a former ascetics' village, it shows in built form how closely Buddhism and Shinto were once entwined at Warabioka.

What to look for at the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate

Peer behind the grilles at the side bays of the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate. The floored spaces are where the guardian kings used to stand. The statues now wait at the entrance of Ryūzuji's main hall next door, and seeing both gate and statues makes the 1873 move easy to picture.

Look up at the brackets. The demitsudo sets step one unit forward from the post, and together with the kaerumata they cast shadows across the front. The doubled rafters at the eaves are a formal detail, finished with more care than the size of the gate might suggest.

From the side you can see the two-tier gable framing jutting forward.

Visiting the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate

The Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate stands on the approach and can be walked through freely; there is no admission fee. Warabioka Kuchinomiya is roughly 10 minutes by car from Yuza Station on the JR Uetsu Line, or about 20 minutes from the Sakata-Minato interchange, with parking for around 20 cars.

Beyond the Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine Warabioka Kuchinomiya Zuishin Gate, the vermilion Kagura Hall appears on the right, and the approach continues through the third torii to the main hall. The Fukura Kuchinomiya office handles inquiries (0234-77-2301) and issues goshuin stamps for Warabioka.

No official guidance on photography was found, so be considerate during rites. Yuza Town notes that pilgrims once climbed about 499 stone steps from the first torii at the foot of the slope to reach Uwadera; if you have time, walk up through the village to the gate.