Built in 1407 on the Hill Beside the Shrine
The Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda is a three-bay, five-storey wooden pagoda with a cypress-bark roof standing on Tonooka hill at Miyajima-cho, Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, erected in the seventh month of 1407 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 7 April 1900.
Itsukushima Shrine gives the overall height as a little over 29 metres and the plan as 4.6 metres square, and describes the carpentry as Chinese-style detailing with Japanese-style elements added. In practice that means brackets and curved beams borrowed from the continental manner sitting on a frame whose proportions and roof lines stay native. The Agency for Cultural Affairs classifies the building under pre-modern temple architecture, which is a reminder of what it was: a Buddhist pagoda on the grounds of a shrine, a pairing that was ordinary before the separation of the two religions in the early Meiji period.
Height is one point where the sources part company. Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education records 27 metres; Itsukushima Shrine gives a little over 29 metres. Both are published figures and the gap is probably a question of what is measured, so it is worth quoting them as a pair rather than picking one.
The date is not a guess. A cast-iron plate covering the underside of the finial base carries an inscription reading the seventeenth day of the third month of Tenbun 2, that is 1533, together with the names Daiganji and Domoto. The prefecture reads this as evidence of a refit in that year, and adds that the nine rings of the finial were cast by Yamada Iki-no-kami, a bell-founder of Hatsukaichi. The pagoda has been repaired often enough to leave a paper trail on its own metalwork.
It stands a short climb above the shrine, next to Senjokaku. The vermilion is visible from the ferry, from the shoreline and from the corridors below, which is why the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda appears in more photographs of Miyajima than most visitors realise they have taken.
The Paintings Inside, and the Graffiti Under Them
The ground storey is the reason this building matters beyond its silhouette. Its columns are lacquered vermilion with the upper sections wrapped in gold brocade pattern, and the prefecture records that the names of those who paid for each column's polychromy are written on them. Behind the central altar stand the raigo pillars and the raigo wall, painted with a lotus pond. The panels above the beams carry heavenly figures playing instruments. On the west face, the lower dado shows lotuses in water, the upper wall the eight patriarchs of the Shingon school, and behind them the Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, a Chinese landscape subject that a Japanese painter of the early sixteenth century would have known through Zen circles. Phoenixes run along the tie-beam inside the four central pillars. The prefecture adds that the inner sanctuary ceiling carries clouds and dragons, and that the raigo wall is painted with the lotus pond on its front and a white-robed Kannon on its back.
Some of the small upper panels have lost much of their pigment. That loss turned out to be informative. Graffiti dated 1508 had long been known on the west panel, and during the current repair infrared photography found older inscriptions beneath the paint layer, including a date corresponding to 1529. Someone was writing on these walls while the building was barely a century old, and someone else painted over them.
The interior of the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda is not open to visitors, and it never has been on a regular basis. What survives inside is therefore known mainly through repair records and survey photographs, which is part of why the designation matters: the paintings are protected by a status rather than by an audience.
Under Repair Until 2027
The pagoda is currently scaffolded. Itsukushima Shrine began a conservation project in 2025 and expects the work to run into 2027, with the temporary scaffold scheduled for dismantling in December 2026. Visitors arriving before then will find the building sheathed rather than exposed.
The trigger was weather. In September 2020 the back-draught of Typhoon No. 10 tore at the cypress-bark roof, and iron sheeting was fitted as an emergency measure. The current programme covers re-shingling the roof in cypress bark, repainting the exterior and cleaning the interior polychromy, together with piecework on damaged timber and replacement of metal fittings.
Cleaning is the delicate part. The pigments on the ground storey are flaking in places, and the infrared survey mentioned above was carried out precisely because the surface cannot simply be washed. Work of this kind on the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda happens perhaps twice in a century, so the published survey images are worth looking at before a visit; they show more of the interior than any visitor will see.
Seeing the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda
The pagoda stands in the open on Tonooka hill and costs nothing to approach. From the shrine exit, a flight of stone steps climbs to the terrace it shares with Senjokaku; the climb takes a few minutes and the steps are uneven in places. Photography from outside is unrestricted. The interior is closed, so there is no ticket and no queue.
The terrace itself is the better vantage. Standing back from the base lets the five roofs separate against the sky, while from the steps below you see only the lower storeys. Paying the 100 yen to enter Senjokaku next door, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., puts you on a raised floor at roughly the height of the pagoda's second roof, which is the closest most people get to the upper structure.
Getting to Miyajima means a ferry from JR Miyajimaguchi Station or the Hiroden stop of the same name, about ten minutes across, then about a ten-minute walk. Hatsukaichi City charges a Miyajima visitor tax of 100 yen per entry, added to the ferry fare. Because the repair schedule can shift, check the shrine's construction page before travelling if the scaffold matters to you.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda?
- No. Itsukushima Shrine states plainly that the pagoda cannot be entered. The wall paintings of the ground storey are known through repair surveys rather than public viewing.
- Is the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda covered in scaffolding right now?
- Yes. Repair work started in 2025 and continues into 2027, with the scaffold due to come down in December 2026. The shrine publishes progress on its construction page.
- How much does it cost to see the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda?
- Nothing. It stands on an open terrace reached by public steps. Neighbouring Senjokaku charges 100 yen for adults, and the shrine buildings below charge 300 yen, but neither is needed to see the pagoda.
- Why is there a Buddhist pagoda at Itsukushima Shrine?
- Shrines and temples shared precincts for most of Japanese history. The Agency for Cultural Affairs still classifies the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda as temple architecture, and the finial inscription names Daiganji, the temple immediately west of the shrine.
- How tall is the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda?
- Itsukushima Shrine gives a little over 29 metres overall, on a plan 4.6 metres square. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the form as a three-bay five-storey pagoda with a cypress-bark roof.
- Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, List of Nationally and Prefecturally Designated Cultural Properties (PDF)
- https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/640309.pdf
Basic Information
| Name | Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda (厳島神社五重塔, Itsukushima Jinja Gojunoto) |
|---|---|
| Location | Miyajima-cho, Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property. Within the World Heritage site Itsukushima Shinto Shrine |
| Year Designated | 1900 (7 April) |
| Quantity | 1 structure; no attached property |
| Dimensions | Three-bay five-storey pagoda, cypress bark roof, 1407. Height 27 m per Hiroshima Prefecture; a little over 29 m on a plan 4.6 m square per Itsukushima Shrine |
| Owner | Itsukushima Shrine |
| Public Access | Exterior viewable free of charge on Tonooka hill. Interior closed. Under repair from 2025 into 2027; scaffold due down within 2026. Miyajima visitor tax 100 yen |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3178
- Cultural Heritage Online: Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/157715
- Itsukushima Shrine, Cultural Properties and Structures
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/culture.html
- Itsukushima Shrine, Repair of the Five-Storied Pagoda (PDF)
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/images/040_page/construction/kouji_25032501.pdf
- Itsukushima Shrine, Construction Status and Plans
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/construction.html
- Hatsukaichi City, Outline of the Miyajima Visitor Tax
- https://www.city.hatsukaichi.hiroshima.jp/soshiki/110/59551.html
- Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, List of Nationally and Prefecturally Designated Cultural Properties (PDF)
- https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/640309.pdf
Last verified: 2026.09.08