Shounji Temple Main Hall

Shounji Hondo: A 1934 Main Hall Built the Old Way in Inuyama

The main hall of Shounji, a Rinzai Zen temple in the southern part of Inuyama's old castle town, was completed in 1934. Japan at that moment was building in steel and reinforced concrete; ferries and rail lines were reshaping the Kiso River region just north of here. Yet the carpenters at Shounji raised a fully traditional timber hall, 15.1 meters across the front and 14.2 meters deep, under a hipped-and-gabled roof of sangawara tiles, and finished it with details that look back centuries. In 2012 the building was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property together with the temple's Kobo Daishi hall and bell tower.

The hall stands at the rear of the grounds facing east, receiving the morning sun across the approach path. That orientation is not accidental. Temple tradition holds that in 1811 the seventh abbot moved a formerly south-facing main hall to face east and shifted the main gate accordingly, fixing the layout still in use today. The present building thus occupies a position worked out over two centuries ago.

Shounji is said to have begun in 1526 as a hermitage called Shoun-an, re-established in the castle town in 1653 and renamed Shounji in 1795. Its principal image is the bodhisattva Sho Kannon.

Why the Hall Was Registered

The registration criterion is contribution to the historic scenery of the nation, and the hall earns it in two ways. First, as the largest of the three registered buildings, with a footprint of 263 square meters, it anchors the temple compound that in turn anchors the Minamikoken district at the southern edge of the castle town. Second, and more interesting for architecture lovers, is how it was built.

The plan follows the hojo type with six rooms, the classic layout of a Zen abbot's quarters, fronted by a wide veranda corridor called a hiroen. In the inner sanctuary, a pair of freestanding raigo pillars frames the Buddhist altar platform, the shumidan, beneath a finely gridded coffered ceiling of the kogumi type. Outside, the eaves are carried on double rafters spaced in the sparse futanoki-madaraki manner, and the pillars are topped not with elaborate bracket complexes but with simple boat-shaped funahijiki brackets.

The official description calls these choices somewhat archaic, and that is the point. Funahijiki brackets belong to the plainest, most ancient register of Japanese temple carpentry. Choosing them in 1934, when flamboyant carving was well within reach, gives the hall what the national database describes as a calm, gentle character. It is revival architecture in the quietest possible key.

What to Look For

Approach in the morning if you can, when the east-facing front catches the light. Walk the path between the Kobo-do hall and the bell tower, which face each other midway, and let the main hall come into view at the rear of the grounds. The sequence was composed, not accumulated.

At the hall itself, look up at the pillar tops. The boat-shaped funahijiki brackets, smooth curves of wood without a single carved flourish, are the building's signature. Compare them in your mind with the three-block brackets and frog-leg struts on the little bell tower behind you; the same tradition, dialed to two different registers, within one compound.

The interior, with its raigo pillars, altar platform, and coffered sanctuary ceiling, is generally not open for casual viewing, though the temple has been known to welcome visitors on occasion. Plan on enjoying the exterior, and treat any glimpse inside as good fortune.

The grounds are free to enter. Shounji sits about ten to fifteen minutes on foot from Meitetsu Inuyama Station, opposite the registered Horibe Family Residence, an easy pairing at the end of a castle town walk.