Tokujuji Temple Main Gate

The Red Gate at the Southern Edge of the Castle Town

Tokujuji Temple Main Gate (徳授寺山門, Tokujuji Sanmon), built in the early Edo period between roughly 1615 and 1661, stands at the entrance to the precinct of Tokujuji, a Zen temple in the castle town of Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012.

Of the five registered buildings at Tokujuji, this gate alone dates from the Edo period. The main hall went up in 1896, and the memorial tablet hall, the entrance and the bell tower in 1934. While the other four were rebuilt or newly raised in the modern era, Tokujuji Temple Main Gate has kept its early Edo form at the mouth of the precinct.

All the woodwork is painted red. The gate measures 2.8 meters along the ridge and 1.8 meters across, with wing walls 1.1 meters long on either side. The roof is Kirizuma-zukuri, plainly gabled, finished in Sangawara-buki pantile, and the ridge runs north to south.

This Was Where the Town Ended

The castle town of Inuyama was laid out as a sōgamae, a plan in which the fortifications enclose the town along with the castle. It took shape after the castle was built in 1537 and its broad outline was settled during the Keichō era. Inuyama City's plan for the maintenance and improvement of historic scenic beauty records that precinct licences were issued in this period to Yakushiji, Tokujuji, Enmeiin and other temples. Temples were being fixed into the skeleton of the town.

The same document carries a second statement about position. Drawing on the oldest surviving pictorial map of the town, the Owari no Kuni Inuyama Castle map, it notes that the southern limit of the town proper reached as far as Tokujuji.

Tokujuji Temple Main Gate, then, was never simply the door of one temple. It stood on the line between town and not-town. Its early Edo construction date falls just after the Keichō years in which the precinct licence was granted, so the moment the gate was raised and the moment this spot became the southern boundary of the castle town are not far apart.

Stand in front of the gate today and face south, and everything beyond you lay outside the town in the Edo period.

Why It Was Registered

Tokujuji Temple Main Gate carries registration number 23-0350 and belongs to the 73rd round of registrations, under the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape of Japan.

The form is a Yakuimon. Secondary posts stand behind the main posts and the roof ridge is shifted forward, toward the main posts, giving a gate that ranks between the simple ridged gate and the four-legged gate. Samurai residences and temples used it widely for their principal entrances. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes this one as a large yakuimon fitting for the main gate of an old temple.

Two details support the early dating. The first is the ezama, the carved pattern worked into the end grain and flanks of the lower beam. These patterns grew more elaborate and their curves finer as the centuries passed, and the pattern here belongs to an earlier stage of that development.

The second is the pronounced curve of the Taruki, the rafters carrying the eaves. Bending them strongly is an older practice. What is notable about this gate is that its date rests on the shape of its timbers rather than on any document.

What to Look For

The first thing you register at Tokujuji Temple Main Gate is the colour. Every piece of exposed timber is painted red, and since the merchant houses of the surrounding castle town are built of white plaster, black tile and bare wood, this is the one point on the street that carries a hue. You will not walk past it by accident.

Next, look up at the eaves. The curve of the rafters reads better from a few paces off and at an angle than from directly beneath. The eaves line is not level; it lifts slightly toward each end.

The wing walls deserve a mention. At 1.1 meters each and with a 2.8-meter gate between them, the whole assembly presents about 5 meters of frontage. Those short walls are what make the gate read as a section of boundary rather than a device for passing through.

Once you are inside, turn around. Seen from the precinct, Tokujuji Temple Main Gate works as a frame, holding the noise of the street at its far edge.

Getting There and Visiting

Inuyama Station on the Meitetsu network is roughly a 10-minute walk away. The address is 232 Minamikoken, Inuyama City, on the castle town street running from the station toward Inuyama Castle. Tokujuji Temple Main Gate stands at the precinct entrance, so it can be seen directly from the street.

The precinct is open and no admission fee is charged. Nothing restricts photography of the gate, but it faces the road, so watch for cars and bicycles while you frame a shot.

A kindergarten operates within the grounds. Mornings at drop-off and afternoons at pick-up bring heavy traffic through the gateway, and lingering in front of the gate at those hours is best avoided. The temple buildings are not open on a regular basis; contact the temple in advance if you hope to look inside.