Daigoji Temple Golden Hall

A Hall Moved from Kishu, National Treasure since 1954

Daigoji Kondo (醍醐寺金堂) is a Buddhist hall at Daigo Garan-cho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, designated a National Treasure in 1954, on 20 March. It had become an Important Cultural Property on 1 August 1908. The quantity is one building, designation number 00202, seven bays along the front and five deep, single storey, hip-and-gable roof, tiled. It belongs to Daigoji.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the building came from elsewhere. Daigoji was founded by Shobo, 832 to 909, at the wish of the emperors Daigo, Suzaku and Murakami. Its kondo burned in 1295 and again in 1470. Toyotomi Hideyoshi later set about rebuilding it, beginning in 1598 to move a hall here from Yuasa in Kishu, and although Hideyoshi died in the course of the work it was completed in 1600. That is the present kondo.

The building was not raised for Daigoji. A hall standing at Yuasa was taken down, carried here and reassembled. The move began in 1598; Hideyoshi died in the eighth month of that year, and the work was finished in 1600.

The Year It Was Built Is Unknown

Of the hall in its original place the Agency states one thing plainly: the year in which this kondo was built at Yuasa is unknown, but its principal parts show the manner of the late Heian period.

The year of building is unknown, and the period is judged from the style. That period differs both from the founding of Daigoji, in 926, and from the year of the move, 1600. The three dates should not be confused.

The Agency concludes: in any case it is the largest building among the surviving works of the late Heian period. First in scale for its period, and the measurements of seven bays by five are the grounds for it.

Only the Front Bay Was Widened

On the plan the Agency is specific. The inner sanctuary, three bays square, has its ceiling raised a stage in a coved form; side sanctuaries one bay deep flank it, and an outer aisle runs round all four faces.

The outer aisle is the single bay around the perimeter. Sanctuary at the centre, then side sanctuaries, then aisle: three layers. Only the sanctuary ceiling is coved and raised, so the centre stands highest.

One further point follows. On the front, the bays of the outer aisle have been widened, and that widening appears already to have been carried out in the Kamakura period. Of the four faces only the front has wide bays, taken to result from alteration while the hall stood at Yuasa.

The passage closes: the other parts, however, retain the manner of the time of building well in their bracket sets, beams and so on. Front from the Kamakura period, the rest from the Heian: two periods overlap within one building.

Three Periods in One Building

Three periods of work are present here.

The principal parts are in the late Heian manner, with the original form surviving in the bracket sets and beams. The widening of the front aisle bays is a Kamakura alteration. And the steeply pitched hip-and-gable roof is taken to date from the move, in the manner of the Momoyama period.

The bracket sets are also noted as not uniform. The front carries projecting three-block brackets while the sides and back carry flat three-block brackets; the flat sets are held to be original and the projecting ones on the front to have been added in the Kamakura repairs. Comparing the four faces of the building, the history of alteration can be read in the difference between the bracket sets.

In the modern period, dismantling or partial dismantling for repair was carried out in 1929.

Visiting

The kondo stands in the lower precinct of Daigoji, east of the great west gate and facing south. Admission is charged, and hours and charges vary by season, so check before travelling.

Inside stand the principal image, a seated Yakushi Nyorai, with Nikko and Gakko Bosatsu and figures of the four guardian kings. These are Important Cultural Properties, designations separate from the building.

The interior is noted for having no barrier or partition between the inner sanctuary and the worship space, so that the two form a single volume. The coved sanctuary ceiling and the wide bays on the front can be seen from within.

A five-storied pagoda, also a National Treasure, stands in the same lower precinct. Daigoji holds six National Treasure buildings in all: the kondo and pagoda, the Yakushido, the Seiryugu worship hall, and the main study and karamon gate of the Sanboin. From Daigo Station on the Kyoto Municipal Subway Tozai Line it is about ten minutes on foot.