Zenkoji Temple Tower Gate

A Gate That Never Got Its Upper Storey

The Zenkoji Temple Tower Gate (善光寺楼門, Zenkōji rōmon) is a late-Muromachi-period gate at the entrance to Zenkoji, a Shingon Buzan-school temple in Ota, Ishioka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on December 26, 1983. Built by the Oda clan, warlords of Hitachi Province, it is a romon, a two-storey gate type, of three bays with one passage, but it is said to have been left unfinished because of war.

According to the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education, the temple's founding legend says that in the third month of 1501 the mother of Oda Shigeharu, then lord of Oda Castle, a devout follower of the Zenkoji Buddha, chose this place and founded the temple. It lies in the former Yasato district of Ishioka.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a three-bay, single-passage romon "lacking everything above the eaves," with a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof of Kayabuki thatch, and dates it to the late Muromachi period (1467 to 1572).

Why It Matters

The Zenkoji Temple Tower Gate was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1983. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that although the gate was never finished, its details, such as the carved ends of the head tie beams and the frog-leg struts, show the character of the region and the period clearly, making it important for tracing late-medieval architecture in this area.

A romon normally has two full storeys. Ibaraki Prefecture explains that the gate is now single-storey, but the roof space holds remnants of upper-storey post sockets, the bracketing for an upper balcony, old roof beams and bracket sets, showing that it was begun as a two-storey gate. That unfinished state is what the national record means by "lacking everything above the eaves."

Its exact date is unknown. The prefecture says the carved scrollwork on the head tie beams, bracket ends, struts, rainbow beams and frog-leg struts clearly shows mid-Muromachi traits, while the national record places it in the late Muromachi period.

What to Look For

Step under the gate and look up into the roof space: the leftover members prepared for an upper storey are still there. Finding the post sockets, balcony bracketing and bracket sets that the prefecture describes makes it clear that this was meant to be a two-storey gate.

Among the details, look at the bracket ends where the head tie beams finish and at the carving of the frog-leg struts on the beams. Both the national and prefectural accounts single these out as the clearest work of local carpenters of the Muromachi period. From outside, note how the thatched hipped roof sits directly on the lower framework, with no upper storey between.

Visiting the Zenkoji Temple Tower Gate

According to Ishioka City's tourism guide, the Zenkoji Temple Tower Gate can be viewed freely and there is no car park. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Ishioka-Omitama Smart Interchange on the Joban Expressway and about 10 minutes from the Kasama-nishi Interchange on the Kita-Kanto Expressway. It stands in Ota, Ishioka City.

No official guidance was found on public transport, admission or photography.