Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance

What Is Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance?

Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance (仁和寺大玄関, Ōgenkan) is the entrance building at the southern end of the palace compound of Ninnaji in Omuro-Ouchi, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City; it dates from 1890 and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 28, 2011.

A fire in 1887 destroyed most of the palace buildings at Ninnaji. The Grand Entrance was among the first things rebuilt, going up in 1890 alongside the White Study Hall, which served as a temporary Shinden. The new Shinden itself was not finished until 1914, so the compound took close to three decades to recover.

The building faces east and connects to the halls behind it by a covered corridor. Today it is where visitors to the Palace Garden step up into the buildings, and it houses the Ogenkan stamp office, where pilgrims collect the handwritten temple seal known as goshuin.

Why Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance Is Registered

The criterion was serving as a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance a large entrance hall that is at once dignified and lavish.

The main block is 12 m by 7.0 m under a hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof of pantiles (Sangawara-buki), with a building area of 127 square metres. From its east front projects a carriage porch close to 6.0 m wide, the kind of covered stop where palanquins and carriages once pulled up. The porch roof sweeps up into a cusped karahafu gable and is covered in cypress bark (Hiwadabuki).

The Agency's database sums up the roof as "tile, partly cypress bark," and that split is the key to the design. The body of the building wears durable tile; only the face that greets guests gets the softer, palace-style bark. From a distance the roofs read as one, but up close the change in texture is obvious.

The carving is the other point the Agency stresses. The frog-leg struts (Kaerumata) and the flared oigata brackets flanking the vase-shaped struts (Taiheizuka) are cut with care, a small signal of the rank expected of an imperial abbot's residence.

Highlights: Approaching the Carriage Porch

The best view of this building comes before you enter it. Walk through the Honbo Omotemon Gate and follow the diagonal stone path, and the cusped gable of the carriage porch grows ahead of you. From the path you can see the soft curve of the bark roof layered against the straight ridges of the tiled roof behind it.

Look for the carved struts and brackets around the porch. Because Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance faces east, morning light on a clear day falls straight on the front and brings out the depth of the carving.

A wall runs east from the Grand Entrance, and midway along it stands the Imperial Family Gate (Kozokumon), which divides the forecourt from the South Garden in front of the Shinden. Facing the porch, you will see it in the wall on your right, to the north. Together the two buildings form the southern edge of the palace compound.

Visiting Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance

Ninnaji Temple Grand Entrance is the doorway to the paid Ninnaji Palace Garden area. Once past the ticket counter and the Honbo Omotemon Gate, you see the carriage porch at the end of the stone path, and every visitor to the palace steps up into the buildings here.

The Ogenkan stamp office issues the Palace Garden goshuin. On days when the Palace Garden is closed, the stamp office and shop close as well and seals are handled at the office in front of the Kondo.

Personal photography is allowed in the grounds, though not inside worship halls, and the porch can be photographed from the stone path.

Opening hours, admission and directions to the temple are covered on the Ninnaji Temple page.