A Muromachi Gate, Designated in 1904
The Motoyamaji Nio Gate (本山寺二王門, also written 仁王門 and romanised Motoyama-ji Niomon) is a mid-Muromachi period temple gate at Motoyama in the Toyonaka district of Mitoyo City, Kagawa Prefecture, designated an Important Cultural Property on 29 August 1904. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places its construction between 1393 and 1466 and records its form as a three-bay, single-entrance eight-legged gate with a gabled roof laid in formal hongawarabuki tile.
That 1904 date deserves a moment. Japan's system for protecting historic buildings began with the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law of 1897, and this gate was taken into national protection only seven years later, among the first generation of protected structures anywhere in the country. When the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties came into force in 1950, the older designations were carried over into the new category of Important Cultural Property. The gate has therefore stood under national protection continuously for more than a century.
Reading the Gate
An eight-legged gate, yatsuashimon, takes its name from its posts. Four main posts stand in a row carrying the doors, and behind and in front of them run two further rows of four supporting posts, eight in all. The plan is three bays wide with the doorway in the central bay, which is what sanken ikko describes. The two side bays are where the Nio, the pair of muscular guardian kings, stand watch, and it is their presence that gives the gate its name.
The roof is kirizuma, a simple gable, without the hipped extensions that a larger or later gate might carry. Simplicity here is not poverty. A gable end presents a clean triangle to anyone walking up the approach, and the structure inside that triangle is left legible rather than hidden behind a hip.
Local sources, including Mitoyo City, describe the gate as built in the eclectic setchuyo manner, drawing together elements of the native wayo tradition with the karayo (Zen) and tenjikuyo (Great Buddha) styles that reached Japan from the continent in the Kamakura period, and they characterise the mixture as unusual on a national scale. The Agency's own file for the gate carries no descriptive commentary, so this reading comes from local scholarship rather than from the national record, and a visitor who wants to test it should look at the bracket complexes and at how the tie beams pass through the posts.
Walk through slowly, then turn and look back. The underside of the roof and the framing above the doorway are visible from within the gate in a way they are not from either approach, and this is the part of the building where the mid-Muromachi carpentry is least obscured by later repair.
Visiting the Gate
The Motoyamaji Nio Gate is the southern entrance to the precinct, and worshippers still walk through it on their way to the Main Hall. Both the exterior and the framing beneath the roof can be seen freely. The side bays hold the Nio, the pair of guardian kings who give the gate its name.
It helps to look in order. From the approach, study the triangle of the gable end and the structure inside it. Stop under the roof and look up at the framing, then turn and look back from inside the grounds. The bracket type and the way the tie beams pass through the posts are easiest to check once you are under the gate.
The Great Gate on the eastern side of the grounds is also an eight-legged gate, but it is a late-Edo gate with a hip-and-gable roof, different from the Motoyamaji Nio Gate in both period and profile. Seeing the two together makes the economy of the gabled gate all the clearer.
We found no official rule against photographing the exterior, but please keep clear of worshippers passing through and follow any signs on site. The national record writes the name 二王門, while the temple and local signage usually write 仁王門; both are read Niomon and refer to the same building.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go through the Motoyamaji Nio Gate, and is there an admission fee?
- Yes. The grounds of Motoyamaji are open and free to enter, and the gate serves as the working entrance to the precinct, so visitors walk through it. There is no ticket and no separate charge for the gate.
- How old is the Motoyamaji Nio Gate and when was it designated?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the mid-Muromachi period, between 1393 and 1466. It was designated on 29 August 1904 under the earlier preservation law and has held Important Cultural Property status since the 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect.
- Where are the guardian statues in the Motoyamaji Nio Gate?
- One Nio guardian stands in each of the two side bays of the three-bay gate; the central bay is the passage.
- Is the Motoyamaji Nio Gate the same as the Great Gate?
- No. Both are eight-legged gates, but the Motoyamaji Nio Gate is the mid-Muromachi gabled gate at the southern entrance, while the Great Gate is a late-Edo gate with a hip-and-gable roof on the eastern side of the grounds.
- What should I look for at the Motoyamaji Nio Gate?
- The structure revealed in the gable end, the bracket type, and the way the tie beams pass through the posts. Stand under the gate to look up at the roof framing, then turn and look back from inside the grounds.
Basic Information
| Name | Motoyamaji Nio Gate (本山寺二王門) |
|---|---|
| Location | Motoyama, Toyonaka-cho, Mitoyo City, Kagawa Prefecture (temple address: 1445 Motoyama-ko) |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structure), designation no. 00331 |
| Year Designated | 29 August 1904 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Three-bay, single-entrance eight-legged gate; gabled roof in hongawarabuki tile; mid-Muromachi period (1393 to 1466) |
| Owner | Motoyamaji temple |
| Public Access | Grounds open and free of charge; the gate is the working entrance to the precinct |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Motoyamaji Niomon
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3304
- Cultural Heritage Online — Motoyamaji Niomon
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/148501
- Mitoyo City — Motoyamaji, Temple No. 70 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage
- https://www.city.mitoyo.lg.jp/kakuka/seisaku/sangyo/14_1/2/2510.html
- Shikoku Eighty-Eight Temple Pilgrimage Association — Shippozan Jihoin Motoyamaji
- https://88shikokuhenro.jp/70motoyamaji/
Last verified: 2026.09.26
