The or is a traditional

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

characterized by a very asymmetrical

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof () projecting outwards on one of the non-gabled sides, above the main entrance, to form a portico (see photo).History and Typology of Shrine Architecture
Encyclopedia of Shinto accessed on November 2009 This is the feature which gives it its name. It is the most common style among shrines all over the country. That the building has its main entrance on the side which runs parallel to the roof's ridge (non gabled-side) makes it belong to the style.

Design

Sometimes its basic layout, consisting of an elevated partially surrounded by a veranda called '' hisashi'' (all under the same roof), is modified by the addition of a room in front of the entrance. A ''nagare-zukuri'' ''

honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

'' (sanctuary) varies in roof ridge length from 1 to 11 '' ken'',The ''ken'' is the distance between one supporting pillar and another, a quantity which can vary from shrine to shrine and even within the same building. but is never 6 or 8 ''ken''.JAANUS
Nagare-zukuri
accessed on December 1, 2009 The most common sizes are 1 and 3 ''ken''. The oldest shrine in Japan, Uji's Ujigami Shrine, has a ''honden'' of this type. Its external dimensions are 5x3 ''ken'', but internally it is composed of three measuring 1 ''ken'' each.

Variation

''Ryōnagare-zukuri''

is an evolution of the ''nagare-zukuri'' in which the roof flows down to form a portico on both non-gabled sides. Examples are the ''honden'' at

Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima), best known for its "floating" ''torii''.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005)"''Itsukushima-jinja''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 407. It is in the cit ...

and that at Matsunoo-taisha in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

''Kasuga-zukuri'' and ''nagare-zukuri''

While superficially completely different, the ''nagare-zukuri'' style actually shares an ancestry with the second most popular style in Japan, the ''

kasuga-zukuri is a traditional Shinto shrine architectural style which takes its name from Kasuga Taisha's ''honden''. Description It is characterized by the use of a building just 1x1 '' ken'' in size with the entrance on the gabled end covered by a veranda ...

''. The two for example share pillars set over a double-cross-shaped foundation and a roof which extends over the main entrance, covering a veranda. (The ''Kasuga-zukuri'' is the only '' tsumairi'' style to possess this last feature.) The foundation's configuration is typical not of permanent, but of temporary shrines, built to be periodically moved. This shows that, for example, both the ''nagare-zukuri'' Kamo Shrine and Kasuga Taisha used to be dedicated to a mountain cult, and that they had to be moved to follow the movements of the ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

''. The styles also share a veranda in front of the main entrance, which makes it likely they both evolved from a simple gabled roof.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagare-Zukuri Japanese words and phrases Shinto architecture Nagare-zukuri

Design

Variation

''Ryōnagare-zukuri''

''Kasuga-zukuri'' and ''nagare-zukuri''

See also

Notes