What sankarado means
A sankarado is a hinged door built of vertical stiles and horizontal rails forming a frame, with thin boards, lattice or pierced carving fitted into the panels. It is used for the doorways of Buddhist halls, shrine buildings and gates. Karado means a hinged door, and the framed, relatively light sankarado is distinguished from the itakarado, a door made of thick boards.
The sankarado is said to have spread with the Zen style in the Kamakura period and is common on Zen Buddha halls. It later became a standard temple and shrine door regardless of style, and in the early modern period many were made with panels of flowers, birds and scrolling foliage in pierced carving.
It differs from other fittings in how it opens and how it is made. The Shitomido is a shutter hinged at the top and swung up, and the Mairado is a sliding door with closely spaced horizontal slats; neither is a hinged door like the sankarado.
Reading the records and the building
Records give the number of doors and their decoration. The portable-shrine house of Shinmeisha has a step at the front and four sankarado. The record for the main gate of Ganshoji notes the pierced carving and metal fittings of its sankarado among the lavish decoration typical of a True Pure Land temple. At Ninnaji in Kyoto, the imperial family gate has a pierced transom above its sankarado, and the imperial messenger's gate fills its walls and doors with pierced patterns of flowers, phoenixes and scrolls.
Some doors only imitate the type. Residential gates are sometimes recorded as having board doors in the manner of sankarado, so watch for that qualification in the record.
On site, look at the face of the door. Clear lines of frame and rails with boards, lattice or carving between them indicate a sankarado; a flat surface of thick boards indicates a board door.
References
- 仁和寺皇族門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009044
- 仁和寺勅使門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009043
- 神明社神輿殿｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00004691
- 願正寺山門｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014123
Last verified: 2026.09.26