What mokoshi means
A mokoshi is a pent roof and enclosure wrapped around the main body of a Buddhist hall or pagoda below its eaves. A second row of posts stands outside the main posts, and a small roof over them creates a corridor-like space around the walls of the main body.
Seen from outside it adds a tier of roof beneath the main roof, so a single-storey building can look two-storeyed; records therefore distinguish the structural number of storeys from the number of visible roofs. Zen-style Buddha halls often take the form of a single storey with a mokoshi.
Reading the records and the building
Records note mokoshi on each storey, on the first storey, or on the hall. The east pagoda of Yakushiji in Nara is three-storied, but with a mokoshi on each storey it has six roofs. The octagonal pagoda of Anrakuji in Ueda, Nagano, has a mokoshi on the first storey, giving four roofs. The main hall of Tofukuji in Kyoto, a large single-storey hip-and-gable hall with a mokoshi, has three-step brackets on the main body and one-step brackets on the mokoshi, grading the two parts.
On site, compare the projection of the roofs and their brackets. The main roofs project further with more elaborate brackets, while the mokoshi roofs are smaller with simpler brackets. Check the record rather than judging storeys by counting roofs.
References
- 薬師寺東塔｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/123477
- 安楽寺八角三重塔｜文化遺産オンライン
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/188773
- 東福寺本堂｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014859
Last verified: 2026.09.26