Isonokami Shrine - Architecture

Architecture

Isonokami shrine is surrounded by Japanese cedar (sugi), and is known for its quiet solemnity. A waka poem from the Man'yōshū anthology mentions Isonokami shrine, surrounded by holy cedar trees.

The current site of Isonokami shrine may have been the site of an earlier religious structure, the Izumo shrine. This is suspected because of a secondary shrine to Izumo Takeo found near the main shrine, but on higher ground. Since secondary shrines are never built higher than the principal shrine, some have concluded that it was an older structure that stood before the current one.

The honden, or main hall, is built in the nagare-zukuri style.

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