Daikakuji Shingyoden Hall

About the Daikakuji Shingyoden Hall

The Daikakuji Shingyoden Hall (大覚寺心経殿) is a single-storey reinforced-concrete sutra repository of 1925 at Daikakuji in Saga, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 16, 1998. It was built to keep copies of the Heart Sutra offered to the temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as single-storey reinforced concrete with a copper roof and a building area of 31 square metres. It is owned by the religious corporation Daikakuji, an imperial temple created from Emperor Saga's detached palace and known as the Saga Palace (Kyoto City Tourism Association).

A Hall for the Sealed Sutras

According to Daikakuji, the Shingyoden was rebuilt in 1925 on the model of the Yumedono at Horyuji. Inside are the Heart Sutras copied in the hands of Emperor Saga and of Emperors Go-Kogon, Go-Hanazono, Go-Nara, Ogimachi and Kokaku, kept under imperial seal, together with a statue of Yakushi Nyorai.

The Kyoto City Tourism Association notes that the sealed sutras are opened only once every 60 years.

Why It Was Registered

The Daikakuji Shingyoden was registered as a building that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes how it recreates a wooden octagonal hall in reinforced concrete while using the material's qualities in details such as the eaves and veranda. It was designed by Fujii Koji, a leading residential architect of the early Showa era, and is valued as a rare non-residential work by him.

What to Look For

The Daikakuji Shingyoden takes the form of an octagonal hall, translating a wooden building into reinforced concrete (Agency for Cultural Affairs); its eaves and veranda are designed around the new material.

In front of it stands the Shingyo front hall (Mieido), the banquet hall built for Emperor Taisho's enthronement and moved here, whose inner sanctum opens towards the Shingyoden so that worshippers face it (Daikakuji).

Visiting the Daikakuji Shingyoden Hall

According to the Kyoto City Tourism Association, the hall area and the Osawa Pond area are both open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.). Admission to the hall area is 800 yen for adults and 400 yen for school pupils; the pond area is 500 yen and 100 yen. The temple may close irregularly for its own ceremonies.

Take a city or Kyoto bus to Daikakuji, or walk about 20 minutes from the north exit of JR Saga-Arashiyama Station. Telephone 075-871-0071 (Kyoto City Tourism Association). Photography and video inside the halls are not permitted (Daikakuji).