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.
The temple behind it is Motoyamaji, formally Shippozan Jihoin Motoyamaji, a Koyasan Shingon temple and the seventieth stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage of eighty-eight sacred sites. Temple tradition holds that Kukai founded it in 807 under the name Chofukuji. Its principal image is Bato Kannon, the horse-headed form of the bodhisattva, said to be the only Bato Kannon serving as principal image anywhere on the eighty-eight-temple circuit.
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.
What Lies Beyond, and How to Visit
The gate opens onto one of the more complete temple precincts in Shikoku. Directly ahead stands the main hall, a National Treasure, built in 1300 to a plan five bays square with a single-storey hipped roof and a three-bay porch. It was first taken into national protection in 1924 and re-designated a National Treasure on 22 June 1955. A 1955 dismantling and reassembly reversed an 1840s remodelling that had given the hall an Edo-period exterior, returning it to its medieval form. Seven further buildings, among them the Daishido, the Juodo, the Dainichido, the treasure house, the bell tower, the great gate and the kabukimon, were entered on the register of Tangible Cultural Properties in December 2014.
The five-storey pagoda rising to the left is the landmark visible from the surrounding rice country long before the temple itself. The present structure dates from 1910, rebuilt under the priest Yoritomi Jikki after the earlier pagoda deteriorated. Only four temples on the eighty-eight-temple pilgrimage have a five-storey pagoda, and this is one of them.
A story attaches to the gate and the main hall together. During the Chosokabe campaigns of the late sixteenth century, when much of Sanuki's temple architecture burned, soldiers are said to have entered the precinct, opened the shrine within the main hall, and withdrawn without setting fires after seeing blood run from the body of an Amida image. Excavation has found no burn layer here, so whatever happened, the buildings did survive; the account of why is a tradition rather than a documented event.
The grounds are open and there is no admission charge, so the gate can be walked through freely. Photography in the precinct is not generally restricted, though the interiors of the halls are another matter and posted notices should be followed. The principal image is a hidden image and the main hall interior is normally closed; the exception is the Kyuri Kaji rite held on the day of the ox in midsummer, when the inner sanctuary is opened. The temple is at 1445 Motoyama-ko, Toyonaka-cho, Mitoyo City, about twenty minutes on foot from Motoyama Station on the JR Yosan Line, or roughly five minutes by car from the Sanuki Toyonaka interchange, with about thirty parking spaces.
One naming point worth flagging. The national record writes this gate 二王門 while the temple and local signage generally write 仁王門; both are read Niomon and both refer to the same building. Separately, do not confuse it with the temple's Daimon, or great gate, which is a different structure and holds registered rather than designated status.
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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.
- How do you reach Motoyamaji and the Nio Gate?
- The temple is at 1445 Motoyama-ko, Toyonaka-cho, Mitoyo City, Kagawa Prefecture. It is about twenty minutes on foot from Motoyama Station on the JR Yosan Line, or around five minutes by car from the Sanuki Toyonaka interchange. About thirty parking spaces are available.
- Can the main hall interior at Motoyamaji be seen?
- Not usually. The principal image, a Bato Kannon, is a hidden image and the interior is normally closed. The inner sanctuary is opened for the Kyuri Kaji rite held on the day of the ox in midsummer, when visitors may enter.
- What else at Motoyamaji is worth seeing besides the Nio Gate?
- The main hall of 1300 is a National Treasure. The five-storey pagoda, rebuilt in 1910, is one of only four on the eighty-eight-temple pilgrimage. Seven further buildings including the Daishido, Juodo, bell tower and great gate were registered as Tangible Cultural Properties in 2014.
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
- National Cultural Properties Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Motoyamaji Hondo (National Treasure)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3305
- 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: 2026.08.09