Silver Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design · 2024
Hoshino Jinja Shrine
- A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Mochizuki Corporation
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 129,500
- Verification code 6DE6A0D7D0 · Verify this award
About Hoshino Jinja Shrine
It is an innovative approach that combines old and new technologies, such as the traditional Japanese traditional construction method that does not use any metal fittings, Ishiba-building and limit strength calculation based on modern structural analysis. The design, composed of horizontal and vertical lines, is highly aesthetic and has been described as attractive structural beauty based on the unique Japanese sense of beauty.
Within the rich tradition of sacred wooden architecture that has defined spiritual spaces across East Asian cultures for millennia, Shigetaka Mohizuki's Hoshino Jinja Shrine emerges as a compelling contemporary expression of building practices refined through countless generations of master craftsmen. The structure demonstrates the sophisticated understanding of timber as a living material that characterizes the highest achievements of traditional carpentry, where each joint, each surface treatment, and each proportional relationship embodies accumulated wisdom regarding the behavior of wood under stress, the effects of seasonal humidity fluctuations, and the aesthetic sensibilities that transform functional necessity into visual poetry. The ascending perspective captured in this image invites contemplation of the building's tectonic honesty, where structural members remain fully visible rather than concealed behind applied finishes, allowing viewers to trace the logic by which vertical loads transfer through horizontal beams and diagonal braces to reach the supporting posts below. This transparency of construction method connects the shrine to broader architectural philosophies valuing material authenticity and the celebration of making processes as sources of beauty in themselves. The warm palette of freshly worked timber, ranging from pale straw tones in direct light to deeper amber and sienna in shadowed recesses, creates an atmosphere of welcoming warmth appropriate to spaces intended for spiritual reflection and community gathering. Decorative elements appear with appropriate restraint, the gilded hardware and vermillion lacquer of the upper fascia serving as dignified accents rather than overwhelming ornament, maintaining focus on the fundamental beauty of wood grain and joinery precision. The surrounding forest canopy visible as a verdant frame positions the structure within its natural context, suggesting the traditional siting of sacred spaces within groves where the boundary between built and natural environments dissolves into harmonious continuity. How might extended contemplation of such structures deepen our understanding of the relationships between craft tradition, spiritual aspiration, and environmental stewardship that inform their creation?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The simple design of the new covered hall, with its copper-sheet roof, the main element of the shrine, gabled roof, and horizontal and vertical lines of the pillars, stiles, and footings, expresses the Japanese sense of beauty with a very high level of design. This building is open to those who study, manage, and use architectural techniques, and functions as a place to learn about such knowledge.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Main applications Shinto shrine
Site area 0.402248ha
Building area 0.009565ha
Total floor area 0.009277ha
Maximum height 30.8395ft
Eaves Height 20.669ft - Tags
- Mochizuki Corporation, Mochizuki Architects, Architectural Design Office, Shrine carpenter, traditional techniques, architect, Architect Builder,artisan,
- Production Technology
- The masonry structure employed in this building has the aptitude to resist earthquakes and typhoons without damaging the earth.
The building was calculated and planned using the limit capacity design method, which is based on the frictional and restorative forces resulting from the combination of members, a characteristic of wooden architecture. It is truly an epoch-making building that makes full use of traditional Japanese construction methods and new technologies. - Design Challenge
- function and reflect its role without eclipsing the sacred building. The sensitive design solution was to emphasize simplicity and strength.
- Project Duration
- The project started in August 2019 in Toyokawa City, Aichi, Japan and finished in December 2021
Location 102 Kamikaizu, Hirao-chou, Toyokawa City, Aichi, Japan, Aichi, - Operation Flow
- Tradition evolves through innovations and is reborn as a new tradition.
Centuries-old traditional skills and craftsmanship combined with new modern practices and designs, will be bridging to a new traditional residential architecture, that carries on succession of skills. - Research
- The building has been used as a training site for university and technical college students, engineers, and prefectural and city officials to foster younger generations and pass on traditional techniques, and has been widely covered by the media through several public tours. As a result, it has become possible to sustain the traditional techniques of architecture. The use of local wood contributes to tradition, culture, industry, and the environment, and the shrine has become a local landmark.
- Inspiration
- The design, composed of horizontal and vertical continuous lines, is aesthetically pleasing and unique to Japanese architecture, and is considered an "attractive structural beauty.
An innovative approach that combines traditional Japanese construction methods that use no hardware at all with modern structural analysis and "limit strength calculations" to create buildings that will last for 100 or 200 years, blending old and new technologies. - Image Credits
- Photographer, Yasuo Hagiwara
Colors of Hoshino Jinja Shrine
Get Hoshino Jinja Shrine
Grand Interview about Hoshino Jinja Shrine
The covered hall plays an important role in protecting the main shrine from the elements. The plan to rebuild the main shrine building began because it was difficult to maintain the main shrine building due to the close proximity of the old and new buildings. The shrine officials hoped that the new covered hall would be a structure that would continue to protect the main shrine for another 100 to 200 years, while being preserved in this location for generations to come. In addition, the main shrine, which is designated as a cultural asset by the city, will be investigated, renovated, and restored.The new covered hall will be an architecture in which traditional construction methods and technologies are not antiquated but state-of-the-art through a fusion of high-dimensional clarification of traditional construction methods and technologies using modern structural analysis technology and traditional construction methods and technologies that are the work of the modern age. We hope that the building will be a landmark in the community, and at the same time, it will be an architecture that preserves the strength and comfort of wood and its traditions for future generations.
In addition to the structural beauty that is inevitably created by the axial structure of “pillars” and “penetrations” of the traditional construction method, which has been handed down for hundreds of years, the addition of “penetrations” calculated by modern structural calculations creates more horizontal and vertical continuity in the structure, resulting in a design that combines the traditional and modern scientific perspectives. The result is a design that fuses the traditional viewpoints of the past with the scientific viewpoints of the present.
The government-subsidized project, “Creation of Design Methods and Performance Verification Experiments for Traditional Construction Methods,” conducted from 2010 to 2014, makes it possible to incorporate safety and versatility into traditional buildings from a scientific perspective based on structural mechanics clarification.This will ensure the safety of traditional buildings through modern structural calculations.
The design of the building has once again become a landmark in the community, as it has retained the design of the old covered hall that was built more than 100 years ago and was well known in the community.
This architecture contributes to the succession of technology and the revitalization of local industry by evolving traditional techniques and designs, both old and new, and being publicly recognized both domestically and internationally with architectural and design awards.
The government-subsidized “Design Method Development and Performance Verification Experiments of Traditional Construction Methods” conducted from 2010 to 2014 will make it possible to incorporate safety and versatility into traditional buildings from a scientific perspective by clarifying structural mechanics.The inheritance of traditional technology is not an old-fashioned business, but rather, by turning the scientific scalpel to the technology and construction methods in recent years, we believe that the buildings will be at the cutting edge of technology.
The recent trend toward standardized, mass-produced construction and construction methods that rely on new construction materials and laminated wood has led to a steady decline in traditional techniques, which is difficult to maintain.This building will function as a place for universities, technical colleges, and other professional organizations in the prefecture to learn about traditional techniques, and to train future generations to carry on these techniques.
The two main goals were to nurture young craftsmen who would be the next generation to build and preserve traditional architecture for a long time, and to secure human resources for the severe conditions of the mountains in the exhausted region.
Instead of designing, the shrine carpenter and designer himself was a craftsman who conveyed the importance of traditional techniques and wood as well as education and the sanctity of the shrine through on-site practical work.
The covered hall of the shrine has an important role in protecting the main shrine building from the elements. This reconstruction plan was based on the request of a sustainable structure for another 100～200 years to serve in a community so that traditional construction methods, *Ishibadate, and the calculation method of response and limit strength, are adopted. The main hall is designated as Cultural Asset by the city and will be renovated and restored. This main hall inherits ancient techniques, and the covered hall is new architecture that combines traditional and modern structural analysis techniques*Ishidatea setup where pillars stand on stones instead of being fixed deep into the ground