Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda

About the Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda

The Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda (岩船寺五輪塔) is a stone five-ring pagoda of the late Kamakura period (1275 to 1332) at Gansenji in Iwafune, Kamo-cho, Kizugawa City, Kyoto Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 22, 1952. It stands a little to the left of the Yakuyoke Jizo Hall (Gansenji).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a stone five-ring pagoda. It is owned by Gansenji, a Shingon Ritsu temple in Tono on the border of Kyoto and Nara whose three-storey pagoda, thirteen-storey stone pagoda, stone shrine and five-ring pagoda are all Important Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Gansenji).

Why It Was Designated

The Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1952. According to Gansenji, tradition holds it to be the grave of Heichi, an administrator of Todaiji; it stood in the Kitadani cemetery of Iwafune village until it was moved here around 1937.

What to Look For

The Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda is a little over 2 metres tall (Gansenji).

Beneath its lowest ring is an inverted lotus base, a feature of the Yamato-style five-ring pagodas found from southern Yamashiro into Nara; Gansenji regards this one as a representative example (Gansenji).

Visiting the Gansenji Five-Ring Stone Pagoda

Gansenji is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from March to November and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from December to February, every day. The admission offering is 500 yen for adults, 400 yen for junior and senior high school students and 200 yen for primary pupils (Gansenji). There is no parking in the grounds.

Take the Kizugawa City community bus from JR Kamo Station on the Kansai Main (Yamatoji) Line, about 16 minutes to the Gansenji stop. Seasonal buses also run from Nara (Gansenji).