Yamagata Shrine Chozuya

One bay on the west side of the approach

Yamagata Shrine Chozuya (山縣神社手水屋), the purification pavilion of Yamagata Shrine in Shinohara, Kai City, Yamanashi Prefecture, was built in 1921 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It stands towards the south of the precinct, on the west side of the approach.

The pavilion is 1 bay by 1 bay and covers 5.1 square metres, the smallest of the four structures listed here. The roof is gabled and clad in copper laid in the ichimonji pattern, in which the joints line up in straight horizontal rows. On a roof this small the regularity of those joints is the first thing the eye picks up.

In the national database the pavilion is not classed as a building at all. Like the torii, it falls under other constructed works, while the main hall and worship hall are counted as buildings. A listed structure, then, that the paperwork declines to call architecture.

The smaller it is, the more the design shows

The registration number is 19-0079 and the criterion is the third, a contribution to the historical landscape of the nation, the same as for the worship hall. The database entry states the reason plainly: the design is unified with that of the main hall and the other structures. Yamagata Shrine Chozuya was listed for holding the precinct together rather than for any innovation of its own.

The construction is spare. Round posts stand on circular stone footings, tied by Nageshi tie-beams and the purlin above, with inoko-sasu, a pair of timbers leaning against each other, carrying the ridge. The eaves are made of straight, widely spaced rafters with finished laths left visible. No paint, no carving, no brackets. Plain timber, plainly joined.

One detail parts company with the main hall. There the free-standing ridge posts lean inward, in the manner called Uchikorobi; here the round posts are set dead vertical. The same design family, adjusted to what each building has to do.

The basin is a natural boulder. Not a dressed rectangular tank but a stone used in the shape it was found. Bare timber and unworked stone make this the least processed pairing of materials in the precinct.

Where the visit actually begins

By custom, this is the first stop. Take the ladle in your right hand and rinse the left, change hands and rinse the right, then pour water into your left palm to rinse your mouth. Practice varies from shrine to shrine, and at times the basin may be posted as out of use, so follow whatever notice is up.

Because Yamagata Shrine Chozuya sits near the entrance end of the approach, it also works as a threshold. Everything beyond it, the worship hall and then the main hall behind, belongs to the inner precinct. Turn around and the torii is in view at the southern end; this is the spot where the north-south axis of the grounds reads most clearly.

For detail, step under the roof. The spaced rafters and the finished laths can only be seen from underneath. The thickness of a single post, the way the tie-beam meets it, the angle of the inoko-sasu: the fifteen seconds it takes to rinse your hands is long enough to read most of the design.

Seeing it

This is a working purification pavilion, used by visitors before they pray. You can walk in under the roof, and there is no fee and no time restriction. Nothing fences it off, which makes it the one structure of the four you can examine at arm's length.

No notice forbids photography. A rope is sometimes strung in front of the basin when use is suspended on hygiene grounds, so check the signage before touching the water. During festivals the approach here gets crowded; a weekday morning is the quiet time.

A note on the name: the national database writes the building as 手水屋, while the Yamanashi prefectural list and local tourist information use 手水舎. Both are read chozuya, and both refer to this same pavilion.

Directions and parking for the precinct are covered on the Yamagata Shrine page.