Choboji Temple Gate

A Wooden Gate Above the Yada River

A short flight of stone steps climbs from the wooded bank of the Yada River in the Higashi ward of Nagoya. At the top stands a single tile-roofed gate of dark timber, marking the entrance to Chōboji, a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen. The gate is the temple's sanmon, its principal gate, and it was raised in the latter half of the eighteenth century, during the Edo period.

The structure belongs to a type called a yakuimon. Two thick main pillars carry the front of the roof, while a pair of slimmer posts support the rear, and the ridge is set forward of the centre line, so that one slope of the roof runs longer than the other. The gate measures about 4.8 metres across the front and only some 1.7 metres deep, broad for a gate of its kind. Heritage records describe it as a structure of three bays with a single central opening, the passage through which visitors still enter the precinct.

The gabled roof is laid in hongawara tiling, the formal method that alternates broad flat pan tiles with rounded cover tiles along each joint. Set on a low stone platform, the weight and pitch of that roof give the gate a grounded, settled presence at the head of the steps.

Registered, Not Designated

Japan protects its historic buildings through two different mechanisms, and the difference matters here. The best-known properties are designated as Important Cultural Properties or National Treasures, a status that carries strict controls and, usually, national fame. Chōboji's gate falls into a separate and lighter category: it is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The registration system was created in 1996, largely to extend a measure of protection to the very many older buildings that shape the character of a place without ranking among the country's masterpieces. Owners of registered buildings notify the authorities before making alterations, rather than seeking permission in advance.

The gate entered the register on 18 November 1999, with the formal notice published two weeks later, under registration number 23-0038. It was listed under the criterion that a building contributes to the historical landscape of the nation, the broadest of the three grounds for registration. The gate earns its place, in other words, less as a singular work of art than as an irreplaceable part of the scene at this riverside temple.

The carpentry rewards a close look. The main pillars are cut to a flattened rectangular section rather than left square or rounded. The ridge beam rests on a solid board strut shaped like splayed frog's legs, an ita-kaerumata, together with short posts finished with a skirt-like detail. It is the carved profiling on these members that lets specialists place the gate in the late eighteenth century. Low plaster walls turn at right angles on either side, framing the gate and binding it to the slope.

What to Look For

Begin at the foot of the steps. From there the gate reads as a dark horizontal mass against the trees, the tiled roof pressing down on its timber frame. As you climb, the underside of the eaves comes into view, and this is where the gate repays attention. Look up into the framing for the board frog-leg strut and the short skirted posts beneath the ridge. These are quiet pieces of joinery rather than showy carving, and they belong to a provincial Edo idiom, not to the grand gates of the great city temples.

Step through and the precinct opens onto a small wooded rise. Chōboji is a working temple with a long memory. By tradition it was founded in 1179 by Yamada Shigetada, a local lord, in honour of his mother, which is said to have given the temple its name. Around 1263 the monk Mujū Ichien was installed as founding abbot, the temple turned to Rinzai Zen, and it took its present name. Mujū wrote much of his celebrated collection of Buddhist tales, the Shasekishū, while living here, and the temple is widely held to be the birthplace of Owari Manzai, a comic and celebratory performing art said to have grown from his habit of teaching scripture in plain, approachable language.

That history is still present on the grounds. A wooden seated portrait statue of Mujū, an Important Cultural Property, is kept in the founder's hall and shown to the public only on the founder's memorial day, 10 October; a replica stands year-round in the Nagoya City Museum. The temple also holds the printing woodblocks of the Shasekishū, a city-designated property. The gate you walk under is the threshold to all of it.

Around the Temple

Chōboji sits beside Kigasaki Park on a low bluff by the Yada River, a quiet pocket of the city. The nearest station is Yada on the Meitetsu Seto Line, about a five-minute walk away; buses also run from the larger Ōzone hub, roughly ten minutes off. The precinct is free to enter, and the gate can be seen at any time from the foot of the steps.

A short hop toward Ōzone brings you to two of Nagoya's finest cultural sites, the Tokugawa Art Museum and its adjoining garden, Tokugawa-en, which together preserve the heirlooms of the lords of Owari. The same district is home to Vantelin Dome Nagoya, well known to sports fans, and the Yamada Tenmangū shrine makes an easy added stop.