Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Main Hall

What the Wakamiya Hachiman Main Hall Is

Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Main Hall (窪八幡神社摂社若宮八幡神社本殿), in the grounds of Kubo Hachiman Shrine in Kita, Yamanashi City, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a mid-Muromachi sanctuary designated an Important Cultural Property on February 18, 1949. It is a three-bay Nagare-zukuri building roofed in Hiwadabuki cypress bark.

Wakamiya Hachiman is one of the auxiliary shrines (sessha) of Kubo Hachiman, set just north of the main worship hall, with its own worship hall in front and this sanctuary behind. It is dedicated to Emperor Nintoku, the son of Emperor Ōjin, the principal deity of Kubo Hachiman; that close tie is why it ranks as an auxiliary rather than a lesser subordinate shrine.

Its date is unsettled. The shrine chronicle Ōimata Jinja Hongi gives 1400, but Yamanashi City says the style points to the second half of the fifteenth century, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs simply files it under the mid-Muromachi period.

Why the Wakamiya Hachiman Main Hall Matters

Yamanashi City identifies the Wakamiya Hachiman sanctuary as the oldest of the many buildings at Kubo Hachiman. Most of the precinct was built or rebuilt in the sixteenth century under the Takeda; this small hall comes from before that.

Its age shows in the details: round pillars finished even on the inner faces of the frame, a door surround of the heijiku type, a veranda without the usual end screens, and bargeboards that bend sharply and deeply at the gables.

What to Look For at the Wakamiya Hachiman Main Hall

The front is only three bays, tiny beside the eleven bays of the Kubo Hachiman main hall. Look up at the gable ends, though, and the bargeboards dip and rise in an unusually strong curve, one of the old features Yamanashi City points to.

Then check the end of the veranda. Many shrine sanctuaries close it off with a board screen called a wakishōji, but the Wakamiya Hachiman sanctuary leaves it open, so the veranda simply runs round the side.

Its worship hall in front dates from 1536, so the auxiliary shrine survives as a matched pair of sanctuary and worship hall.

Visiting the Wakamiya Hachiman Main Hall

Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Main Hall stands behind the Wakamiya Hachiman worship hall. The interior is not open; the sanctuary is viewed from beside the worship hall, where its side and roof are visible. It stands close to the Kubo Hachiman main hall, and the two roofs can be compared from the same spot.

Directions to the shrine and general visiting information are gathered on the Kubo Hachiman Shrine page.