Hoto-Ji Temple Stupa (Tahoto Pagoda)

Kyoto's Oldest Tahōtō Pagoda

Behind the main hall of Hōtō-ji, in the Fukakusa hills of southern Kyoto, a two-storied pagoda dated to 1438 rises among the trees. It is a tahōtō, a form with a square lower story and a round upper one, and at roughly eleven meters it is modest in scale. What sets it apart is visible the moment you look up at the lower roof: the tiles are laid in gyōki-buki, an old method in which curved tiles overlap so that one end sits thicker than the other. Almost no surviving building in Kyoto still carries this roofing, and the pagoda is regarded as the oldest tahōtō in the city.

The temple it stands in began as something else entirely. Its predecessor was Gokuraku-ji, a Shingon temple whose founding is traced to the late ninth century and to the Fujiwara family; the name even appears in the "Fuji no Uraba" chapter of The Tale of Genji. In 1307 the head priest Ryōkei took faith under Nichizō, a disciple in the line of Nichiren, and the temple converted to the Nichiren school. Nichizō died in 1342, was cremated here, and was buried on the grounds. The temple then took the name Hōtō-ji, "Treasure Pagoda Temple," after one of the stone Lotus-title pillars he had set up at the entrances to Kyoto.

Why the Pagoda Matters

The pagoda was placed under national protection on 14 April 1906, in one of the earliest waves of heritage designation in Japan, and is today an Important Cultural Property. Its value rests on age and rarity. Kyoto has many pagodas, but among the tahōtō form this is the oldest the city still holds, and the gyōki-buki on its lower roof preserves a tiling technique that had largely fallen out of use by the time later pagodas were built.

There is a second layer of meaning. The tahōtō form takes its name and its shape from the Lotus Sutra, where a jeweled treasure tower rises from the earth and the buddha Tahō Nyorai appears inside to confirm the truth of the teaching. For a Nichiren temple, whose faith centers on the Lotus Sutra, a "treasure pagoda" is not a borrowed ornament but the central image of the scripture built in wood and tile. The temple's own name carries the same character.

What to Look For

The interior is not open, so the pagoda rewards a slow look from the ground. A narrow veranda runs around the lower story with no balustrade, which keeps the base low and clean. The central bay has paneled wooden doors (itakarado); the bays on either side have latticed windows (renji-mado) that let thin light into the first floor. In the spaces between the beams above, only the central bay carries a carved frog-leg strut (kaerumata), a restrained touch in keeping with the mid-Muromachi period.

Follow the structure upward and the logic of the form becomes clear. The square first story gives way to a white plaster dome called the kamebara, the "tortoise belly," which carries the round second story above it. A pyramidal roof finishes the top, set with a bronze finial. That move from square to round, eased by the white curve between them, is the feature that defines a tahōtō.

Reaching the pagoda is part of the visit. From the outer gate, itself an Important Cultural Property from the Muromachi period, a stone-paved approach climbs gently past a row of small sub-temples. The vermilion Niō gate beyond it was rebuilt in 1711; its ceiling holds around 250 painted peony panels, each with a different design. Behind the main hall, a long flight of stone steps climbs to the Shichimen hall on the hill above, where the ground opens to a wide view over the southern city.

Nearby

Hōtō-ji sits in Fukakusa, a short walk from two stations that also serve one of Kyoto's busiest sights. Inari Station on the JR Nara Line is about ten minutes away on foot, and the same station puts you at the entrance to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the shrine known for its tunnels of vermilion torii gates climbing the mountainside. Tōfuku-ji, famous for its maples and its long covered bridge, is one stop further north. The contrast is much of the appeal: a few minutes from crowds of thousands, the approach to Hōtō-ji is usually quiet, and the climb to the Shichimen hall gives a view back over the same district.