Ujigami shrine

Main hall ( honden ) of Ujigami-jinja

The Ujigami Shrine ( Japanese 宇治上神社 , Ujigami-jinja ) is a Shinto shrine and is located at the foot of Mount Asahiyama on the eastern bank of the Ujigawa River in the city of Uji in Kyoto Prefecture in Japan . It is exactly opposite the Byōdō-in , for which it was designed as a guardian shrine. Until the Meiji Restoration, this shrine formed a unit with the Uji shrine-

The attachment

The main hall ( honden ) of the shrine was built at the end of the Heian period , making it the oldest shrine building currently in existence. They are five ken wide and two ken deep, built in the Nagare-zukuri architectural style and covered with cypress bark. It is one of the national treasures of Japan .

Inside the shrine there are three small shrines next to each other, which are made in the style of Ikkensha-zukuri . They date from around 1200, with the Chūden shrine for Emperor Ōjin , the Saden shrine for Uji-no-Wakiiratsuko ( 菟道稚郎子 ) and the Uden shrine for Emperor Nintoku . Uji-no-Wakiiratsuko is said to have committed suicide as Crown Prince after the death of Emperor Ōjin in order to leave the succession to his older stepbrother, the following Emperor Nintoku.

Immediately in front of the main hall is the prayer hall ( haiden ), which is also declared a national treasure. It is six ken wide and three ken deep, designed as a Kirizuma zukuri , with the hall being extended by 1 ken to the right and left, so that the side canopies ( hisashi ) result in a bracket- gable front ( sugaru hafu ). Like the main hall, the roof is covered with cypress bark. This construction gives the prayer hall the elegance of a small palace building.

Along with several other shrines, temples and castles in Kyoto of Ujigami-jinja 1994 by the UNESCO for World Heritage Historic Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) appointed.

Image selection

Prayer hall ( haiden )
The prayer hall from the side
The Kasuga-style shrine on the premises

Remarks

↑ Ken is a counting word for spaces between two columns, not the same length measure.
↑ An even Ken number is unusual because it has a column in the middle of the entry page. Due to a small distance between columns on the left, the entrance is still pretty much in the middle.

literature

Yamamoto, Jiro: Kyoto-fu no rekishi sampo (ge). Yamakawa Shuppan, 1999. ISBN 978-4-634-29660-2 . P. 32.

Web links

Commons : Ujigami-jinja - collection of images, videos and audio files

Information offered by the prefecture of Kyoto - English
Information offered by the city of Kyoto - English

34.891111111111 135.81055555556Coordinates: 34 ° 53 ′ 28 " N , 135 ° 48 ′ 38" E

[1] Ken is a counting word for spaces between two columns, not the same length measure.

[2] An even Ken number is unusual because it has a column in the middle of the entry page. Due to a small distance between columns on the left, the entrance is still pretty much in the middle.