Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate

What the Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate is

Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate (教王護国寺北大門, Kita Daimon of Tō-ji, also written Kyōōgokoku-ji) is a Momoyama-period gate on the north side of Tō-ji's main compound in Kujo-cho, Minami Ward, Kyoto City, built around 1601 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1907.

It is a hakkyakumon, an "eight-legged gate," three bays wide with a single passage through the middle bay. The roof is gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) and laid with Hongawarabuki, the heavy round-and-flat tiling used on important temple buildings.

Location is what sets this gate apart. Kyoto City and the Agency for Cultural Affairs both describe Tō-ji's South Gate, Golden Hall, Lecture Hall, Dining Hall and Great North Gate as standing on one north-south line, and treat that alignment as a surviving feature of the temple's original plan. The Great North Gate closes the line at its northern end.

Anchoring the temple's central axis

Stand just inside the Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate and face south: the Dining Hall is directly ahead, with the Lecture Hall and then the Golden Hall beyond it on the same line. From here you are looking down the spine of the whole temple.

Behind the gate, to the north, lies the quarter of sub-temples such as Kanchi-in. The path running from there up to the North Outer Gate on Hachijō-dōri is Kushige-kōji, which Tō-ji says is the only lane in Kyoto City to keep its Heian-period width. The Great North Gate is the hinge between the monumental compound and that quieter district of study.

The South Gate on Kujō-dōri presents Tō-ji to the city. This gate faces inward, joining one part of the temple to another, and its importance comes from where it stands rather than from its size.

A gate from the years of rebuilding

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records the Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate as Momoyama-period work of around 1601.

That timing matters. In 1486, fire during a peasant uprising destroyed the Golden Hall, Lecture Hall and South Gate. The Lecture Hall was rebuilt within five years, but the Golden Hall had to wait until 1603. The Great North Gate belongs to that same wave of reconstruction at the turn of the 17th century, when the temple's core was being put back together.

In a hakkyakumon, four main posts stand in a row directly under the ridge, and four auxiliary posts stand in front of them and four behind. The name counts those eight supports, so the gate has twelve posts in total. Three-bay gates of this type are typically found at temples of high rank.

Its designation date, August 28, 1907, dates from the time of the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law, before today's cultural properties law; the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it as the gate's Important Cultural Property designation date.

What to look for

Begin by counting posts. There are four in the front row, four in the middle and four at the back. Walk around to the side and the three rows line up one behind another, with the gabled roof resting across them.

Then stop in the middle of the passage and turn south.

The broad roof of the Dining Hall fills the view, and you are standing on the same axis that continues through the Lecture Hall and Golden Hall. The straight line you may have seen on a temple plan is right under your feet.

The gate's Momoyama weight shows in its roof. Step back a few paces to take in the full spread of tiles across the front of the Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate.

Visiting the Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate

The Kyoogokokuji Temple Great North Gate stands on a path within the grounds, and during the temple's opening hours, 5:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., you can normally walk through it. There is no charge to see the gate, which stands north of the Dining Hall, outside the ticketed area around the Golden Hall and Lecture Hall.

Enter through the North Outer Gate on Hachijō-dōri and walk south along Kushige-kōji, and the Great North Gate comes into view straight ahead. From the main compound, go around to the north side of the Dining Hall to reach its inner face.

On the 21st of each month the Kōbō-ichi market packs the grounds, this area included. For a calm look at the gate, choose a morning when the market is not on.