ōtori-zukuri 大鳥造

A simple style of main shrine building *honden 本殿, with gable roof *kirizuma yane 切妻屋根, and a single broad entrance at the center of the gable end. It is 2 × 2 bays (3.64 m) and is set on a podium. It does not have the typical veranda or railings surrounding it. It is thought by some scholars that the absence of a veranda derives from the use, originally, of a earthen floor which can still be seen in the Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingū 日前国懸神宮. This style of shrine seems to have the same lineage as the Sumiyoshi Taisha 住吉大社, and the *taisha-zukuri 大社造 shrines. The roof has no curve and the bargeboards *hafu 破風, are straight. The interior is divided into two parts, an inner chamber *naijin 内陣, to the rear and an outer chamber *gejin 外陣, in the front. These are separated by walls on either side of a central door occupying slightly more than one third of the width of the building. The roof of the shrine is covered with many layers of cypress bark shingles. There is a high, superimposed, exterior ridge, which is ornamental rather than structural. Each end is finished with an ogre type ridge-end tile *onigawara 鬼瓦, over which are a set of forked finials okichigi 置千木 (see *chigi 千木), with three wind holes, kazaana 風穴, cut in each. The upper ends are cut vertically and the lower ends are straight cut. The wind holes and ends of the forked finials are protected with decorative metal covers. There are three billets *katsuogi 堅魚木, set one in the middle and one at each end behind the chigi. The bargeboards also have metal, ornament at pendants *gegyo 懸魚, at their peaks and at each end. In front of the shrine itself is a prodigious step canopy *kōhai 向拝. The shrine's plan is very similar to the original Sumiyoshi style *sumiyoshi-zukuri 住吉造.
Example: Ōtori Jinja Honden 大鳥神社本殿, in Osaka; Hinokuma Kunikakasu Jingū (1662; burned in 1905 and rebuilt in 1909) in Wakayama Prefecture.