Tokujuji Temple Entrance

Ten Square Meters of Carving

Tokujuji Temple Entrance (徳授寺玄関, Tokujuji Genkan) is a formal entrance porch built in 1934 on the corridor linking the main hall and the priests' quarters at Tokujuji, a Zen temple in the castle town of Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, and it was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012.

Its floor area is 10 square meters: 3.8 meters wide and 2.7 meters deep. That is small enough to make you hesitate before calling it a building at all. Tokujuji Temple Entrance nonetheless holds a registration of its own, because very nearly all the carving at this temple is concentrated here.

It stands east of the main hall, opening outward from the south face of the corridor that runs across to the priests' quarters. The roof is a mukai-karahafu, a forward-projecting undulating gable, finished in Sangawara-buki pantile. Seen head on, the eaves curve upward and rise to a single crest at the centre.

A Dragon, Waves and Chrysanthemums, a Phoenix

Everything worth studying at Tokujuji Temple Entrance sits in the upper half of the front elevation. It reads from the bottom up.

First comes the tie beam joining the column heads, and above it the Kōryō, the arched beam. Into the narrow slot between these two horizontals a dragon has been carved. It is close enough to touch, and visible only from directly in front.

Above the arched beam stands a Taiheizuka, the short bottle-shaped strut that takes the weight of the roof. Flanking it are decorative brackets called oigata, here carved with waves and chrysanthemums. A water motif and a floral one share the same plane, and the spread of the brackets is generous against the slenderness of the strut.

At the top is the undulating gable, and hanging from its centre is a board known as the kegyō or umageto. At Tokujuji Temple Entrance it carries a phoenix. This is the underside of the gable, where the angle of the light shifts hour by hour, and the carving reads quite differently at different times of day.

Why It Was Registered

Tokujuji Temple Entrance carries registration number 23-0348 and belongs to the 73rd round of registrations, under the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape of Japan.

The genkan of a Zen temple does a different job from the main gate. The gate is the public way into the precinct, open to anyone. The genkan is the formal entrance by which guests are received into the abbot's quarters and the priests' quarters. It is where people with business at the temple arrive, and where the institution states its standing most directly.

Given that role, the concentration of carving makes sense. The main hall at Tokujuji omits the columns that would ordinarily stand on the room boundaries and uses plain bamboo-node transoms rather than pierced ones, producing a broad uninterrupted outer worship space. Against that restraint, the entrance takes on the ornament. The precinct divides the work between its buildings.

Five buildings at Tokujuji were registered on the same day, and three of them, Tokujuji Temple Entrance, the bell tower and the memorial tablet hall, date from 1934. Several structures rising in one year points to a single campaign of building work.

What to Look For

Tokujuji Temple Entrance is small, so it rewards stepping close and taking the carvings one at a time rather than standing back for the whole. Dragon, then waves and chrysanthemums, then phoenix: three subjects stacked vertically, drawing the eye upward as you look.

The curve of the gable deserves attention as well. A mukai-karahafu pushes the centre of the roof forward and bows only that portion. In a precinct otherwise made of straight gables and straight ridges, this is the one place a curve appears.

Light changes what you see. The carvings face south, so around midday the surfaces read flat and bright, while morning and late afternoon send the light in at an angle and bring the depth of the cutting forward.

Getting There and Visiting

Inuyama Station on the Meitetsu network is roughly a 10-minute walk away. The address is 232 Minamikoken, Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture.

The precinct is open and there is no admission fee. Tokujuji Temple Entrance stands on the east side of the main hall, and its front can be seen at close range from within the grounds. For the carvings, your own eyes or a wide lens will serve better than a telephoto, simply because you will be standing so near.

Beyond the entrance, the priests' quarters and abbot's quarters are not open on a regular basis; contact the temple in advance if you have business inside. A kindergarten operates within the precinct, and mornings at drop-off and afternoons at pick-up are busy. Photographing at those hours is best avoided.