Yoganji Temple Ossuary

A concrete Rennyo-do crowned with a finial

Yoganji Temple Ossuary (陽願寺納骨堂, Yōganji Nōkotsudō) is the pyramid-roofed reinforced-concrete ossuary in the northeast corner of Yoganji in Honmachi, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, dated by the national database to 1951 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 August 2020. The temple calls it the Rennyo-do. It is a single-storey reinforced-concrete building with 1 basement level and a tiled roof, and a building area of 21 square metres.

Enter the gate and look to the far right: in the northeast corner, facing south, a small hall with a pyramidal roof and a spired finial rises from a wash-finished base. In its description of the reserved special visit, the temple presents this building as the Rennyo-do, the memorial hall of Rennyo.

The dates do not agree. The national database gives 1951, while the temple's published survey, citing a plaque on the back wall and related papers, says it was completed in the early Showa period with the fifteenth head priest as sponsor. The published sources do not settle which is right.

Why it was registered: an experiment in ossuary design

The Yoganji Ossuary was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of design. The Agency's description notes a wash-finished base, a south doorway framed like a gate, side walls pushed out like bay windows with tall windows, and access to the vault inside the base from both sides of an altar in a lean-to at the back. It credits the design with trying new ideas, such as letting soft daylight in through high windows on the front and sides.

According to the temple's survey, it was designed by the Ito Architectural Office, a leading Fukui practice of the day, and built by Oda Doken, a contractor based in Oda, now part of Echizen Town. The survey sees its bright interior, free of the gloom of older ossuaries, as a view of a new era shared by patron and architect. It notes an exterior that recalls the Imperial Crown style of the prewar years and concludes that the building achieved a new kind of space for an early Showa ossuary.

The roof was originally sheathed in copper, a design in which a deep-eaved roof sat lightly on the heavy body. It has since been re-covered in tile.

What to look for: faux-stone walls and windows on three sides

A base about 0.9 metres high runs around the building, faced in cast-stone wash finish with granite steps. The walls are scored all over with joints imitating masonry, so that the concrete reads as stone.

On the front and both sides, the lower wall flares outward. The temple's survey measures the projection widening from 0.36 metres to 0.6 metres. There is a doorway at the front and tall glazed windows in the sides, and above them, aligned with the underside of the long eaves, a row of glazed clerestory windows on all three faces.

Inside, the worship room is floored with tatami and fitted in cypress. Full-width sliding paper screens stand inside the side windows, and with light from the clerestories they make a room that is bright yet solemn. Heavy concrete outside, a light-filled room within: that contrast is the point of the building.

Visiting the Yoganji Ossuary

The Yoganji Ossuary is a working ossuary, and its exterior can be seen from the grounds. It is at the far right as you enter the gate; the base and the three-sided window arrangement read best from the south front.

The interior is not open at all times. The temple's website has reported opening the main hall and ossuary during the equinox memorial weeks, and the Rennyo-do is on the route of the reserved special visit. When others are there to pay respects, be thoughtful about photography and where you stand.