Zenshūyō

What zenshūyō means

Zenshūyō is the architectural manner that came from China together with Zen Buddhism. It stands alongside the native tradition as one of the axes by which Japanese temple and shrine architecture is classified.

The distinguishing marks are details rather than overall shape. The gate at Hashikuraji in Tokushima Prefecture, built in 1880, is described as a two-tier gate of three bays with one entrance, Irimoya-zukuri and Sangawara-buki, with projecting brackets set densely along both tiers, double rows of closely spaced rafters, panelled double doors at the centre of the upper tier and cusped windows to either side. The entry calls it a fine example of a two-tier gate in this manner from the modern period.

Those details are worth naming. Brackets are set not only over the columns but packed between them; the doors are framed panels rather than solid boards; the windows carry a flame-shaped curve across the top. Where these appear together, the building belongs to this tradition.

The bell tower at Koryuji in Hokkaido, built in 1922, is described as a single-bay building, irimoya-zukuri with a copper roof, standing on a coursed stone base, its frame based on this manner, open between the columns, with two-tier brackets and a Gō-tenjō inside.

Mixed with the native manner, and used into the modern period

The styles are not exclusive. The three-storey pagoda at Chinzanso in Tokyo, built in the late Muromachi period and moved to its present site in 1925, is described as being based on the native manner with elements of the Zen manner added in various parts, its brackets projecting in three tiers and its rafters running parallel at every level.

The wording of these entries distinguishes carefully between a building based on the manner and one that merely adds elements of it. That distinction is worth preserving when writing about a building rather than flattening it into a single label.

Much of the surviving evidence is modern. The Hashikuraji gate dates from 1880, the Koryuji gate from around 1910 and its bell tower from 1922. This was not a manner that ended with the medieval period; carpenters went on choosing it for temple work into the twentieth century.