Hōmotsuden (Treasure Hall)
The Hōmotsuden (treasure hall) is an exhibition space for the collection of precious objects held by Izumo Ōyashiro Shrine.
The first floor contains exhibitions on the history of the shrine, including its origins, the 60-year rebuilding cycle, and its distinctive annual rituals. At the center of the exhibit are the remains of a thirteenth-century central pillar (shin no mihashira) from an earlier Honden (main sanctuary) that was discovered during an archaeological excavation in 2000. Visitors can also examine a full-scale reproduction of a section of the roof that shows how cypress bark is layered to create the roof of the Honden.
The second floor displays valuable artifacts belonging to the shrine, notably a comma-shaped bead (magatama) and bronze dagger-axe (dōka) that date from the Yayoi period (800 BCE–300 CE). Both were excavated in the seventeenth century from the grounds of Inochinushi no Yashiro, a shrine 200 meters to the east. The bead was crafted from jade in Niigata Prefecture and the dagger-axe was produced in northern Kyushu. The distances these artifacts traveled to reach the shrine indicates the importance Izumo Ōyashiro held in ancient times. Another rare object is a two-string zither (koto) called a yakumo-goto, crafted during the nineteenth century. The typical koto has 13 strings, but the creator of this instrument claimed that the design was revealed to him in a dream by the deity Ōkuninushi no Kami. Also on display are replica paintings of the billowing, multi-colored clouds that decorate the ceiling inside the Honden, giving visitors a sense of the sanctuary’s hidden interior.
Constructed in 1981, the Hōmotsuden building was designed by Kikutake Kiyonori (1928–2011), a key figure in the Metabolism architectural movement of the 1960s.
