Akishino-Dera Temple Main Hall

Akishino-Dera Temple Main Hall: A Kamakura Hall on a Nara-Period Plan

Akishino-Dera Temple Main Hall (秋篠寺本堂, Akishino-dera Hondo) is an early Kamakura-period Buddhist hall in Akishino-cho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and was designated a National Treasure in 1953.

Akishino-dera is said to have been founded in 780 by the monk Zenju at the wish of Emperors Konin and Kanmu. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the main hall stands on the site of the temple's original lecture hall. Its construction date is not recorded, but its form places it in the early Kamakura period.

The Nara City Tourism Association notes that most of the temple buildings were lost to fire at the end of the Heian period and that the present main hall was rebuilt in the Kamakura period. The hall was first protected on 28 December 1898, the date that stands as its designation as an Important Cultural Property, and became a National Treasure on 14 November 1953.

Why It Is a National Treasure

The hall is five bays wide and four deep: a three-bay inner sanctuary (naijin) wrapped by a one-bay outer aisle (gejin). It rises from a stone-faced platform, and the low-pitched hipped roof is covered in traditional round-and-flat tiles.

The agency describes Akishino-Dera Temple Main Hall as a building that keeps the tradition handed down from the Nara period while showing Kamakura style in its details, with well-judged proportions throughout, and ranks it among the representative Buddhist halls of its age. The gentle roof and the platform recall Nara's older halls; the brackets and fittings belong to the Kamakura era. That overlap of two periods is the heart of its designation.

What to Look For

On the front, the three central bays have plank doors opening inward, and the end bays have slatted windows (renjimado). On the sides, the front two bays are doors and the rear two are closed with earthen walls. The brackets are the simple three-bearing type (mitsudo-gumi). From the courtyard, notice how low and long the hipped roof sits on its platform.

Inside, there is no raised floor: the whole hall is packed earth, and a Buddhist altar runs the full three bays across the front of the inner sanctuary. The inner sanctuary has a coffered lattice ceiling, while the outer aisle leaves the rafters exposed. Once inside Akishino-Dera Temple Main Hall, look down at the earthen floor, then up at the line where the ceiling changes between the two zones.

The tourism association says the hall enshrines 25 Buddhist images. Best known is the standing figure of Gigeiten, an Important Cultural Property revered as a patron of the arts. The images are designated separately; the hall is the vessel that has held them since the Kamakura period.

Visiting Akishino-dera

The temple is at 757 Akishino-cho, Nara. From the north exit of Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji Station, take a bus bound for Oshikuma for about 6 minutes to the Akishino-dera stop, right by the gate. The station is about 1.3 kilometres away on the map, so walking is also possible.

Visiting hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is 500 yen for adults, 200 yen for junior high school students and 100 yen for elementary school students, who must be accompanied by an adult family member. There is free parking for 12 cars.

The interior of the hall is open to visitors, but no official policy on photography inside could be found. Photography is generally not allowed where Buddhist images are enshrined, so follow the signs and any instructions from the temple.