Shinshu Otani-ha Nagoya Betsuin East Gate and Earthen Wall

The gate that the firebombing missed

The Shinshu Otani-ha Nagoya Betsuin East Gate and Earthen Wall (真宗大谷派名古屋別院東門及び土塀) is a late Edo-period gate with flanking walls at Tachibana in Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2018. It is the oldest building standing on the temple precinct, and it is there by luck.

The temple around it is usually called Higashi Betsuin. Its history begins in 1690, when Tokugawa Mitsutomo, the second lord of Owari, gave permission for a Shinshū Ōtani-ha hall in the castle town. In 1691 he donated the site of Furuwatari Castle, a square of about 100 ken on a side, and the temple compound went up over the next twelve years under Ichinyo, the sixteenth head of Higashi Honganji.

No document records when the gate itself was built. Aichi Prefecture's registration paper dates it from its details to the rebuilding and enlargement campaign that ran from 1805 to 1823, which places it in the late Edo period. On the night of 12 March 1945 an air raid burned nearly every building on the precinct. The East Gate and its walls came through.

Why the East Gate and Earthen Wall were registered

The registration was made in 2018 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of Japan, with the register number 23-0523 in the 91st round. The entry and the gazette notice fall on the same date, 2 November 2018.

Two things carried the case. The first is rarity: central Nagoya lost so much of its pre-war fabric in 1945 that a large Edo-period temple gate surviving in the city is now an unusual thing. The second is quality. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Shinshu Otani-ha Nagoya Betsuin East Gate and Earthen Wall as built from heavy members at a generous scale, producing the imposing street front that a temple of this rank was meant to have.

Registration is not the same procedure as designation. It is the lighter system introduced in 1996, under which owners notify the authorities of major alterations rather than seeking permission for ordinary repair. That suits a working temple whose gate is opened and shut every day of the year.

What to look for

The gate is a kōraimon, a type worth learning to recognise. It has 2 main posts and 2 subsidiary posts behind them. A gabled roof sits on the main posts, and each subsidiary post carries a small separate roof of its own, so the silhouette steps down twice as you move back through the opening. It is one bay wide with a single doorway, roofed in Kirizuma-zukuri form with Hongawarabuki tiling. The opening measures 4.2 metres across.

Look at how the main posts are tied together. A lintel spans between them, finished with kibana, the carved projections that run out past the posts at either end. Above that, 3 bracket arms reach forward to carry the eaves purlin. There is no elaborate bracket cluster here and none is wanted; the effect comes from the weight of the timber.

The wall that is not made of earth

Wing walls run north and south from the gate, timber-framed and roofed with Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the walls proper meet them at right angles. A small side door, a kugurido, is set into the north wing wall for use when the main leaves are shut.

The walls sit on stone bases and read as plastered earthen walls from the street. They are not. The prefecture's survey found the structure to be timber, gabled and pantiled, with the interior hollow. Knowing that changes how the composition looks: what appears to be a solid mass of earth flanking the gate is in fact a light frame dressed to look heavy.

The whole thing was repaired between July 2015 and July 2016. The prefectural record notes that the work kept the original design, so what stands today is the gate as the late Edo carpenters left it, not a reinterpretation.

Visiting the East Gate and Earthen Wall

The precinct is open and free. Gates open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 4:30 p.m. from October to April, and at 5:30 p.m. from May to September. The Shinshu Otani-ha Nagoya Betsuin East Gate and Earthen Wall stands on the east side of the compound, so it is the structure you meet first if you come from the subway.

Take the Meijō Line to Higashi Betsuin Station and leave by Exit 4; the temple is about 5 minutes west on foot. From Nagoya Station, ride the Higashiyama Line to Sakae and change to the Meijō Line. City buses stop at Higashi Betsuin-mae, 3 to 5 minutes away. A small temple car park exists but fills quickly.

Because the gate faces the street, you can see and photograph it from the public pavement outside opening hours, which is the only way to catch it in early morning or late evening light. Inside the precinct, follow any notices posted on the day and avoid photographing services in the main hall. Opening times can change for temple observances, so check with the temple before a long trip.