Ichijoji Bentendo: A Mulberry Flower, a Writing Brush, and a Roof Put Back
On the side panel of a small shrine behind Ichijoji's main hall, a carver left a mulberry flower and a writing brush. The two objects sit together in the openwork transom of the wakishoji, the partition board that closes the side of the veranda. They are not decoration chosen at random. In the world that built this shrine, mulberry paper and a brush were what you used to write a wish, and the pairing points at a devotional habit of the time that has otherwise left few traces in wood.
The building is the Bentendo, one of three guardian shrines standing in a row on the slope behind the main hall of Ichijoji, a Tendai temple in Kasai, Hyogo. It enshrines Benzaiten, a deity of water, music, eloquence, and, by extension, of the arts. The national register dates it to the middle Muromachi period, a span of roughly 1393 to 1466.
The Twin That Is Not a Twin
The Bentendo and the Gohodo, a few paces apart, share a formula on paper: ikkensha sumigi-iri kasugazukuri, hiwadabuki. A shrine one bay wide, built in the Kasuga manner of Nara with diagonal rafters inserted at the roof corners, roofed in layered cypress bark. Kasai City's survey calls the form unusual, and it is: most Kasuga shrines have no corner rafters at all.
Stand between the two and the differences surface fast. The Gohodo has a low front platform and a railing. The Bentendo has neither, so it sits closer to a bare box on posts. The eave fillets and the beam-end carvings are cut differently. And the frog-leg struts, those kaerumata that architectural historians treat as a dating tool, sit closer to the Myokendo next door than to the Gohodo.
That last observation matters more than it sounds. The Gohodo is placed in the late Kamakura period; the Bentendo, on the evidence of these same details, sits roughly a century and a half later. Two buildings, one recipe, and a gap you can see if you know where to look. Few places let you run the comparison standing still.
The Roof That Was Given Back
The Bentendo you see today does not wear the roof it wore a century ago.
At some point in its history the cypress bark had been replaced with clay tile, a common substitution: tile lasts far longer and costs far less to maintain. In 1943, in the middle of the war, the building underwent a full dismantling repair, and the tile came off. The cypress bark went back on, returning the roof to what the evidence said it had originally been. Restoring an earlier state rather than preserving the current one is a judgement conservators make carefully, and only when the evidence supports it.
Cypress bark roofing is a demanding craft. Bark is peeled from standing trees without killing them, dried, cut to length, laid in overlapping courses that can run dozens of layers deep at the ridge, and pinned with bamboo nails driven by a hammer held in one hand while the other feeds nails from the roofer's mouth. The surface it produces reads as soft where tile reads as hard. It also needs redoing every few decades, and both the bark and the roofers are in short enough supply that the technique is now protected in its own right.
A ridge tablet, a single munafuda, is registered as an attached item alongside the building.
Visiting
The Bentendo is the third of the three shrines as you come from the main hall, past the Gohodo and the Myokendo, sitting at the foot of the slope alongside its neighbour. The stone stairway from the entrance to the main hall runs to roughly 162 steps, and the shrines are above that.
Interiors are closed. What you have is the outside, and for these buildings the outside is the point. Give the side panels a look before you move on; the mulberry and brush carving is small and easy to walk past.
The Bentendo was entered in the national register on 14 April 1913, the same day as the Gohodo, under the pre-war system, and carried over as an Important Cultural Property when the current Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect in 1950. Register number 00604.
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Q&A
- Who is Benzaiten?
- A deity of Indian origin, derived from the river goddess Sarasvati, absorbed into Japanese practice as a patron of water, music, speech, and the arts. She is commonly enshrined near ponds and streams, and she appears in the group of Seven Lucky Gods.
- What does the mulberry and brush carving mean?
- Kasai City's survey describes it as revealing of the customs of the period without fixing a single reading. Paper made from mulberry bark and a brush were the tools for writing a petition or a poem, so the pairing is generally taken as a reference to written prayer, fitting for a deity associated with words and the arts.
- Why do the shrines look Shinto if this is a Buddhist temple?
- Before the government separated the two traditions in 1868, temples routinely enshrined kami on their grounds as protectors of the precinct. The three shrines behind the main hall are survivals of that arrangement.
- Can I go inside the Bentendo?
- No. It is a single-bay shrine with no visitor space, and the doors are not opened. Viewing is from the exterior.
- What is the best time of year to see the shrines?
- The grounds are known for cherry blossom in spring and maples in autumn, both concentrated on the lower stairway. The shrines themselves sit under cedar and keep the same setting year round, so timing matters less here than elsewhere on the grounds. Morning light reaches the fronts before the canopy closes over.
Basic Information
| Name | Ichijoji Bentendo (Bentendo Hall of Ichijoji) |
|---|---|
| Location | Sakamoto-cho, Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture |
| Owner | Ichijoji |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structures), designated 14 April 1913; register number 00604 |
| Category | Pre-modern / Shrine |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Date | Mid-Muromachi period (approximately 1393 to 1466) |
| Structure | Single-bay Kasuga style with inserted corner rafters; cypress bark roof |
| Attached item | Ridge tablet (munafuda), 1 sheet |
| Repair history | Dismantling repair in 1943; the tile roof then in place was returned to cypress bark |
| Deity | Benzaiten |
| Access | Shinki Bus from Himeji Station bound for Yashiro, alight at Hokkesan Ichijoji, roughly 35 to 50 minutes. About 10 minutes by car from Kako-gawa-kita IC on the Sanyo Expressway. Behind the main hall, beside the Myokendo. |
| Hours and admission | Grounds open 8:00 to 17:00; admission 500 yen for adults. Exterior viewing only. Confirm current details with the temple before travelling. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: Ichijoji Bentendo (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/2390
- Nationally Designated Cultural Property: Ichijoji Bentendo (Kasai City)
- https://www.city.kasai.hyogo.jp/soshiki/34/1687.html
- Nationally Designated Cultural Property: Ichijoji Gohodo (Kasai City)
- https://www.city.kasai.hyogo.jp/soshiki/34/1688.html
- Nationally Designated Cultural Property: Ichijoji Myokendo (Kasai City)
- https://www.city.kasai.hyogo.jp/soshiki/34/1686.html
- Hokkesan Ichijoji (Kasai Tourism Navi)
- https://kanko-kasai.com/spot/culture/itijoji/
- Station 26 Ichijoji (Saigoku Sanjusansho Association)
- https://saikoku33.gr.jp/place/26
Last verified: 2026.07.16