Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate

What the Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate is

Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate (教王護国寺慶賀門, Keiga-mon of Tō-ji, also written Kyōōgokoku-ji) is an early Kamakura-period gate at the northeast of Tō-ji in Kujo-cho, Minami Ward, Kyoto City, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1907. It is a three-bay "eight-legged gate" (hakkyakumon) with a single passage, under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof in Hongawarabuki tiles.

The gate opens onto Ōmiya-dōri, the avenue that runs north to south along the temple's east side. Kyoto Station lies northeast of Tō-ji, so if you walk over from the station, this gate on Ōmiya-dōri is one of the most convenient ways in.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it only to the early Kamakura period, 1185 to 1274. No ridge tag or ink inscription pins down the year of construction.

Where the Inari portable shrines arrive

The Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate has its big day on May 3. According to Tō-ji's event calendar, a ceremony for the Inari Kankōsai begins at the gate at 2:00 p.m. It is a welcome for the deity of Fushimi Inari Taisha, the shrine famous for its tunnels of red torii: five mikoshi, portable shrines carried on the shoulders of bearers, arrive at the Keigamon with their attendant procession before continuing on through the city.

A Buddhist temple gate becomes the reception point for a Shinto shrine's deities. The ritual can be read as a surviving trace of Shinbutsu-shūgō, the long era when Japanese kami and Buddhas were worshipped as parts of one system.

Crowds gather in front of the gate to watch the procession. Times and details can change from year to year, so check the "Rituals" page on Tō-ji's website before you plan around it.

Why the Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate is protected

The Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate is recorded as designated on August 28, 1907. The date comes from the period of the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it in its database as the gate's Important Cultural Property designation date.

The Keigamon and the Great North Gate share both a form, the three-bay eight-legged gate, and a designation date. What separates them is age. The Great North Gate dates from around 1601; the Keigamon goes back to the early Kamakura period, so the same gate type can be compared across a gap of more than 300 years within one temple.

Seen head-on, the gate shows four posts in a row. These main posts carry the doors and divide the front into three bays, the middle one serving as the passage. Walk to the side and you find four more posts in front of that row and four behind it. Those eight auxiliary supports are the "eight legs" in the name.

Tō-ji lost its central halls to fire more than once. A Kamakura-era gate still standing on a busy avenue is a rarer survival than its modest size suggests.

What to look for

Start on the Ōmiya-dōri sidewalk and take in the whole front. Of the three bays, only the center one is open, and you will notice how wide the gate and its roof are compared with the passage itself.

Next, step underneath to see how thick the posts are and how the timbers above your head are framed together.

Last, walk into the grounds and look back. With the avenue's traffic behind it, the Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate reads clearly as the boundary between the city and the temple.

Visiting the Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate

The Kyoogokokuji Temple Keigamon Gate faces Ōmiya-dōri, so its exterior can be seen from the street at any time, and there is no charge to look at it. The temple grounds are open 5:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and during those hours you can usually enter through this gate. Passage may be restricted during repair work, so follow any notices on site.

The nearest city bus stop is Tōji Higashimon-mae, served by routes 18, 71 and 207 among others; the temple describes it as 1 minute from its grounds.

From the Keigamon Gate, the ticketed Golden Hall and Lecture Hall area and the pagoda are a short walk away. On May 3, expect the area around the gate to be busy before and after the 2:00 p.m. ceremony.