Shinchokokuji Temple Main Hall

What Is the Shinchokokuji Temple Main Hall?

Shinchokokuji Temple Main Hall (新長谷寺本堂, Shinchōkoku-ji Hondō) is a Buddhist hall in Hasederacho, Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, rebuilt in 1460 and designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on 5 April 1909. The designation also covers one zushi, a cabinet-style shrine, listed as a Tsuketari attachment.

The hall is square, five Ken bays on each side, under a single Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof of Hiwadabuki cypress bark. A one-bay Kōhai porch projects from the front. According to Gifu Prefecture, the bracket sets are of the one-step demigumi type, and a veranda with a railing runs around all four sides.

The rest of the temple is organised around this building: the Daishi Hall to the west and the Yakushi Hall to the east sit on roughly the same east-west line as the Shinchokokuji Main Hall.

Why the Main Hall Matters

The first reason is a firm date. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the construction year as Choroku 4, which is 1460, whereas neighbouring halls such as the Shaka Hall are simply labelled "late Muromachi". Together with the pagoda, finished three years later in 1463, the main hall pins down when the temple recovered after fire.

The second is that two periods of craftsmanship share one building. Gifu Prefecture notes that the interior tie beams (Kōryō) and plank-style Kaerumata braces are essentially Muromachi in character, while the details of the entrance porch clearly belong to the Momoyama period of the late 16th century. The porch seems to have been reworked later, which makes the hall a useful real-world example of how a medieval building was updated at the start of the early modern era.

Its designation was also among the earliest at Shinchokokuji. The main hall and the pagoda were listed in 1909; the remaining six buildings joined them in 1953.

What to Look For at the Shinchokokuji Main Hall

The Momoyama porch

Start at the front and look up at the porch. Its square posts carry a karatomen chamfer, a moulded edge cut into each corner. The beam ends projecting forward from the post tops are carved in the round as lions with one foreleg stepping out. Gifu Prefecture lists these alongside the bow-and-eyebrow mouldings on the tie beam, the triangular Tabasami brackets that meet the rafter slope, the thorn-tipped bracket arms and the frog-leg braces as Momoyama features.

The lions come as a pair. Compare their heads and forelegs; small differences between left and right reveal how the carver approached each one.

Muromachi work inside

The interior tells a plainer story. Plank kaerumata are simply thick boards cut into an arch, and the contrast with the sculpted porch is striking. If you ever have the chance to see inside the Shinchokokuji Temple Main Hall, notice how much denser the ornament is on the outside.

Roof and brackets

Walk along a side to see how the demigumi brackets push the eaves out by one step, and how the layered cypress bark gives the roof edge its soft, thick profile. At five bays square it is a size up from the three-bay Daishi Hall and the four-bay Yakushi Hall, which becomes obvious when you see them side by side.

Visiting the Shinchokokuji Temple Main Hall

The hall stands at the centre of the grounds and can be viewed from the front and sides. The porch carvings are only a few steps away from the front, so a good sequence is front first, then a side, then a few paces back to take in the whole roof.

No published information covers access to the interior or viewing of the attached zushi; contact the temple (0575-22-3464) in advance if you hope to see them. Photography is banned inside the outer gate, so small binoculars are the best way to study the lions and tabasami. Directions and general visiting rules are on the Shinchokokuji Temple page.