Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Worship Hall

What the Wakamiya Hachiman Worship Hall Is

Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Worship Hall (窪八幡神社摂社若宮八幡神社拝殿), in the grounds of Kubo Hachiman Shrine in Kita, Yamanashi City, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a worship hall built in 1536 and designated an Important Cultural Property on February 18, 1949. It measures 4 by 3 bays under a single-storey Irimoya-zukuri roof of Hiwadabuki cypress bark.

The Wakamiya Hachiman auxiliary shrine stands just north of the Kubo Hachiman main worship hall, laid out as a worship hall in front and a sanctuary behind. This worship hall is the front building; the sanctuary to its rear is dedicated to Emperor Nintoku.

For once at Kubo Hachiman, the records agree. The shrine chronicle Ōimata Jinja Hongi and the Ōdaiki, a running chronicle kept at Jōnobō, the Buddhist temple that once administered the shrine, both give 1536. Several other buildings here carry conflicting dates, so this hall is unusually well anchored.

Why the Wakamiya Hachiman Worship Hall Matters

The Wakamiya Hachiman worship hall is about twenty years older than the main worship hall beside it. Having two worship halls from the Takeda era side by side, in the same grounds, lets visitors compare them directly.

The main worship hall is an eleven-bay Kirizuma-zukuri gabled building; the Wakamiya hall is a four-bay hip-and-gable structure with very little ornament. Yamanashi City describes its exterior as calm and restrained, and it shows what a plain worship hall of the late Muromachi period looked like.

What to Look For at the Wakamiya Hachiman Worship Hall

Compare the roofs. An irimoya roof is gabled at the top and slopes down on all four sides below, with a triangular gable board at each end. The main worship hall just to the south has plain gable ends, and from between the two buildings the difference is easy to see.

The pillars and eaves carry almost no carving or paint. The thick bark roof over a bare timber frame suits the old-fashioned Wakamiya Hachiman sanctuary behind it.

Visiting the Wakamiya Hachiman Worship Hall

Kubo Hachiman Shrine Auxiliary Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine Worship Hall stands directly north of the main worship hall, and prayers are offered at its front. The interior is normally closed. Step round the side for a view of the Wakamiya Hachiman sanctuary behind it.

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