Nakayama Shrine (中山神社)

Nakayama Shrine stands on a wooded hillside in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, and its main hall has been standing in exactly the same form since 1559. This makes it one of the oldest surviving shrine structures in the Chūgoku region. But what makes Nakayama unusual is not just its age — it’s that the building preserves a architectural style that had already vanished elsewhere by the time it was built. The honden uses a form called chūsei-shinmei-zukuri, a medieval variant of the Ise shrine style that was abandoned during the standardization of shrine architecture in the late sixteenth century. To stand before it is to see what most Shinto buildings looked like before the Tokugawa shogunate codified everything.

The shrine was founded in 709 CE during the reign of Empress Genmei, making it one of the oldest institutions in what is now Okayama Prefecture. It was established to enshrine the deity of the Mimasaka region as the area was formally incorporated into the imperial administrative system. The current main hall was constructed in 1559 by order of the Mori clan, who controlled the region during the Sengoku period. Despite the violence of that era, the building was never destroyed — partly because Nakayama sat on contested borderland that changed hands so frequently no army stayed long enough to burn it. In 1978, the honden was designated a National Treasure, and in 2000, extensive restoration revealed original sixteenth-century pigments still intact beneath centuries of soot.

Kagamitsukuri no Mikoto (鏡作命) is the primary deity, a kami of metallurgy and mirror-making who appears in the Kojiki as one of the craftsmen who forged the sacred mirror used to lure Amaterasu from her cave. The name translates literally to “Mirror-Making Lord,” and the enshrinement here reflects the historical importance of ironworking in the Chūgoku mountains. Tsuyama sits near ancient iron deposits, and archeological evidence shows continuous smelting activity in the area from the Kofun period onward. Kagamitsukuri is also enshrined as a subordinate deity at several other metalworking-related shrines across Japan, but Nakayama is the only major shrine where he holds primacy.

The shrine’s founding legend involves a divine mirror that fell from the sky. According to local accounts recorded in the Edo period, in the year 709, villagers in the Mimasaka hills saw a brilliant light descend into the forest. When they investigated, they found a bronze mirror embedded in a cedar tree, still warm to the touch. The mirror bore no inscription but reflected images with unusual clarity. A shrine was built on the spot, and the mirror was enshrined as a shintai (sacred object housing the kami). The mirror has never been publicly displayed, but historical records indicate it was examined by imperial officials in 1185 and again in 1467, both times described as “a mirror of extraordinary making, origin unknown.” Whether it still exists in the inner sanctuary is unclear — shrine records from the Sengoku period are incomplete.

The main hall is a single-bay structure raised on pillars, with a cypress bark roof and walls of unpainted hinoki wood that have turned silver-grey over five centuries. What distinguishes it architecturally is the munamochi-bashira (ridge-supporting pillars) that rise directly through the roof — a feature found at Ise Grand Shrine but rarely preserved elsewhere after the medieval period. The interior preserves sixteenth-century joinery techniques now visible only in museum reconstructions. The worship hall (haiden) was added in 1689 and uses a contrasting painted style typical of early Edo architecture. A stone stairway of 103 steps, lined with moss-covered lanterns, leads up through cryptomeria forest to the main precinct. Behind the honden is a small auxiliary shrine to Ishikoridome no Mikoto, another mirror-making deity and companion to Kagamitsukuri in mythology.

• Reitaisai (October 29) — The annual grand festival featuring kagura dance performances that have been transmitted locally since the Muromachi period. The dances depict the forging of the sacred mirror.
• Setsubun-sai (February 3) — Bean-throwing ritual performed on the main hall steps, believed to purify the metalworking tools of local craftsmen.
• Hatsumode (January 1-3) — New Year visits, particularly popular among artisans and engineers who come to pray for precision and skill.

Late October during the reitaisai, when the forest takes on autumn color and the sixteenth-century architecture is illuminated for evening kagura performances. The shrine receives few visitors outside festival periods, which means most days offer solitude rare among National Treasure sites. Early morning in any season is ideal — mist often fills the valley below the shrine, and the cedar forest filters light in a way that makes the silver wood of the honden appear to glow. Avoid August, when heat and humidity make the climb uncomfortable.