Nyoiji Three-Storied Pagoda

The Nyoiji Three-Storied Pagoda

A repair carried out in 1619 turned up an unexpected piece of evidence. Workers servicing the bronze finial of the Nyoiji pagoda found a date cut into the ryūsha, the wheel-shaped ornament near its top, recording construction in Shitoku 2, the year 1385. That single inscription fixed the building's age and placed it among the oldest surviving pagodas in western Japan.

The tower stands in the hills of Hazetani, in the western reaches of Kobe, on the grounds of a Tendai temple founded, by tradition, in the seventh century. It rises about 21.3 meters and carries a formal tile roof, the type known as hongawara-buki. In 1952 it was designated an Important Cultural Property.

The temple behind the tower

Nyoiji belongs to the Tendai school and takes the mountain name Hikinzan. According to the temple's own chronicle, the Nyoiji Kyūki, it was opened in 645 by Hōdō, a monk of legend said to have flown to Japan from India, who is described carving an image of Jizō from a haze tree on the slope. Founding accounts like this blend record with legend. What rests on firmer ground is that by the Heian period the priest Ennin had added a Jōgyōdō and a Monjudō, and that the temple eventually grew into a complex of two dozen sub-cloisters.

The pagoda belongs to a later chapter. By the time it went up in 1385, the temple was already centuries old and the country was split between rival Northern and Southern courts. Edo-period repairs, and later work in the Shōwa and Heisei eras, kept the structure standing. The most recent dismantling and reassembly let conservators inspect its joints and timbers closely.

Why it matters

The pagoda earns its place on the national register through its age and the completeness of its early form. Hyogo has only one older surviving pagoda, the one at Ichijōji in Kasai, which is a National Treasure. Nyoiji's tower comes next in line, and it keeps the proportions and detailing of its period rather than the marks of later rebuilding.

The plan is three bays square, the standard module for a tower of this size. Each of the three stories was given a Buddha: Dainichi on one level, Shaka on another, Tahō on the third. The pairing joins esoteric Buddhist practice with the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, and reflects the doctrinal blend of the Tendai school that raised it.

What to look for

Stand at the base and a few details reward a slower look. The tower sits directly on cut foundation stones, ringed by a narrow veranda left open, without the railing many pagodas carry. The central bay of each face has paneled wooden doors; the bays on either side hold lattice windows. Above the columns, simple strut-and-block supports called kentozuka fill all three bays, in place of the heavier bracketing of grander towers, and the eaves are built up from two tiers of closely set rafters.

None of this is showy. The pagoda reads as restrained and well proportioned, the work of carpenters who favored clean lines over ornament. Set on a low rise among trees and fields, it is easy to circle on foot and photograph from several angles.

The grounds and getting there

The pagoda is one of three medieval buildings at Nyoiji, and all three are Important Cultural Properties. The Monjudō, dated by an ink inscription to 1453, is built into a slope with its front raised on posts; inside sits a figure of Monju, the bodhisattva of wisdom. The Amidadō, also called the Jōgyōdō, is older still, from the early Kamakura period. Standing apart from the main cluster, the temple gate keeps a pair of guardian figures modeled in clay, an unusual medium for such statues and one reason they are valued.

The main hall itself is gone, lost after the war, and only its foundation stones remain. The temple and its surroundings, woodland and farmland together, fall within a designated cultural-environment preservation zone, which is part of why the approach still feels rural.

Reaching Nyoiji takes a little effort. From Seishin-chūō Station on the Kobe Municipal Subway, the Shinki bus bound for Akashi reaches the Taniguchi stop in about 13 minutes, and the temple is a 12-minute walk from there. Buses also run from Akashi Station on the JR and Sanyo lines. Visitors are few, and the grounds are usually quiet.