Iwaki · JP

Ōkunitama Shrine Treasure Hall (Homōden)

Tucked at the rear-left corner of the precincts of Ōkunitama Shrine in Iwaki, Fukushima, the Homōden (treasure hall) is where this 1,300-year-old shrine keeps the objects that tell its long story: medieval documents, excavated beads, lord-donated portable shrines and imperial certificates. It is the quiet, scholarly heart of a place locals affectionately call "Suganami-sama" or "Daikoku-sama," the oldest and most representative shrine of the Hamadōri coastal region. The hall makes most sense as the conclusion to a walk around the grounds. Before you reach it you pass the copper-roofed worship hall with its long, dragon-carved porch, the thousand-year cedar struck by lightning but still standing, and—just outside—a burial mound said to hold the first governor of this ancient province. The treasures gathered inside are the documentary proof of all that antiquity.