Yoganji Temple Priests' Quarters

A big gable-fronted kitchen and residence

Yoganji Temple Priests' Quarters (陽願寺庫裏, Yōganji Kuri) is the kitchen, office and residence building north of the main hall at Yoganji in Honmachi, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture; the national database dates it to the early Meiji era, and it was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 August 2020. It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 292 square metres, its gabled roof running east to west with the east gable end as its face.

In a Shin Buddhist temple the Kuri houses the priests, the temple office and the kitchen, and it is often the largest building after the main hall. At Yoganji it stands right beside the main hall, so from the approach you see its triangular gable rising to the right of the great hipped roof.

The database places it between 1868 and 1882 and notes an extension in the postwar Showa years. The temple's survey starts earlier: rebuilding began the year after the 1852 fire, and traces of hand-forged nails in the roof frame point to construction starting in the late Edo period, as with the main hall.

Why it was registered: an Edo-period kitchen building

The Yoganji Priests' Quarters was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency's description notes the great tie beam and curved shrimp beams decorating the east gable, the heavy roof framing exposed above the east entrance, the kitchen to the north where boards now cover the earth floor, and the loft over the central boarded room used as living space. Despite alterations, it says, the building keeps the character of the Edo period.

The temple's survey compared the building with an Edo-period plan of the precinct and confirmed that the post positions match the rebuilding. On that plan, a yard with a stove and a well lay to the right of the earth floor; the well still exists. A large sunken hearth sat on the left of the central boarded room, with rooms for the resident priests and a small courtyard behind. The courtyard was floored over after the war and became a reception room and meeting hall.

The most visible change is the formal Shikidai entrance on the south side, facing the main hall. It originally belonged to the entrance wing north of the audience hall and was moved here after the war. The ceremonial doorway once used to receive the head of Hongwanji now sits on the side of the kitchen building, a small record of how the temple's use of its buildings shifted.

What to look for: beams in the gable, rafters over the earth floor

From outside, look at the east gable. Across the white plaster wall, a great arched tie beam and linking shrimp beams make the structure itself into the ornament, above a dado of vertical boards. The temple's survey credits this front with giving the building a presence equal to the large main hall beside it.

Inside the entrance, the roof structure is left open right up to the ridge beam. At the edge of the earth floor stands a zelkova main pillar about 33 centimetres square. The loft above the boarded room was fitted out as rooms, with floorboards laid on the joists.

According to the temple's survey, an old photograph from the ossuary's dedication shows the roof on the main-hall side raised a step higher, carrying a drum tower. It is gone now, but it is worth remembering when you look at the roofline from the south.

Visiting the Yoganji Priests' Quarters

The east gable and the south entrance can be seen freely from the grounds. The building is still the temple's working office and residence, and its reception rooms are not public rooms. For the reserved special visit, the temple names the entrance of the Yoganji Priests' Quarters as the meeting point.

Whether you can see the open roof framing and the main pillar depends on the day's route and events. If you want to, ask the temple office, open 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.