I went to the Shishikui Yasaka Shrine! |「海陽で行ってみた！」宍喰八坂神社編
Hi it's Tony!
こんにちは、トニーだよ！
In May, I checked out the Yasaka shrine in Shishikui with Global Kaiyo team member Kyoko! The last time I came here was during the Global Kaiyo tour event. It’s been almost whole year since then, so I was excited to be able to go again.
5月に、グローバル海陽チームの暁子さんと宍喰の八坂神社に行ってみたよ！前回来たのは、グローバル海陽ツアーの時だったけど、あれからほぼ一年経ったので、また行ける事が楽しみだったんだ。
When I arrived at the site, the front building, which is the worship hall, seemed very bright like it was popping out at me. Then I remembered that the shrine was undergoing renovation work during the event last year, and we couldn’t see the building properly.
神社に着くと、神社の拝殿が飛び出しているように、とても明るく見えたよ。そういえば、昨年のイベント中は改修工事中だったからちゃんと見ることができなかったね。
The building has gotten a new coat of paint as a result, and the red accents along the edge of the roof goes really well with the green!
改修の結果として建物は新しく塗装されていて、屋根の赤い破風が自然の緑とよく合っているね！
There are two torii gates that lead into the shrine, and as I walked through them, I noticed the kanji used to write the name of the shrine on the board are different between the two gates. I wonder why….
神社には2つの鳥居があり、そこをくぐると、それぞれの扁額で神社の名前を書くのに使われている漢字が違うことに気付いた。なんでなんだろうね？
Walking around to the back of the worship hall, I saw a couple of smaller shrines dedicated to the many different deities. Placed on the roof of these individual shrines were ornaments called chigi. Kyoko told me that if the tops of these are cut vertically, the enshrined god is usually a male, whereas if it were cut horizontally then it would mean the enshrined god is a female. This one’s a male, I guess!
拝殿の裏側に回るといくつかの摂末社があった。これらの屋根には、「千木」と呼ばれるものが飾られていて、暁子さんによると千木の先端が縦に削られていると祭神が男神で、横の場合だと祭神が女神だそうなので、こっちは男神ということかな。
Connected directly to the front building was what I believe is the main shrine. Visitors can’t enter it, but I did manage to capture a couple of photos through the fence.
拝殿とつながっているのが本殿と思われる建物だ。中に入ることはできないけど、柵越しに何枚か写真を撮ることができたよ。
The wooden carvings on the support are very intricate and detailed, and I’m always amazed when I see things like this, especially knowing that they’re hand carved.
梁の木彫りはとても複雑で細かく、特に手彫りであることを知ると感動するよね。
And that concludes our short trip to the one of Japan’s three Gions, the Shishikui Yasaka Shrine! I think it’s very easy to pass it off as just another shrine, but its history is quite compelling and if you look carefully, there are a lot of fine details to be appreciated!
以上、日本三祇園のひとつ、「宍喰八坂神社へ行ってみた」でした！普通の神社として見てしまうかもしれないけど、その歴史はとても興味深く、よく見ると細かい部分がたくさんあるよ！
I also heard that the Shishikui Gion festival, which takes place here, is going ahead this year so I’m looking forward to that as well!
今年は宍喰祇園祭が開催されるので、それも楽しみだね！