Ryoginan Hojo (Abbot's Quarters)

The Oldest Surviving Abbot's Quarters

The Ryoginan Hojo (Abbot's Quarters) (竜吟庵方丈) is the early Muromachi hojo, or abbot's quarters, of Ryoginan, a sub-temple of Tofukuji in Honmachi, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, which in 1963 was designated a National Treasure.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a single-storey hip-and-gable building 16.5 by 12.9 metres with a shingle roof, designated with its entrance and three ridge tags.

According to the Agency, an inscription on the back of the Ryoginan plaque hung by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu dates it to around 1387.

Plan and Exterior

According to the Agency, a typical hojo has six rooms around a central room with a broad veranda, but here the central room is three bays wide at the front and four at the back, closed at the rear by a board wall. This differs markedly from other hojo, where the room behind the centre is a Buddha room screened by sliding doors; the rear room here was probably a sleeping room.

Outside, every front room has top-hinged shutters and both sides have plank doors, fittings found in no other hojo, and some timbers were reused from a Kamakura-period predecessor. Its partitions had been much altered, but the dismantling repair begun in 1958 restored its original form.

What to Look For

The Agency values it for preserving an older form before the standard early modern hojo, with a wall at the front of the central room and no altar, and a layout akin to palace architecture.

Its refined exterior reflects the early Muromachi period, and as the oldest surviving hojo in Japan it recalls the origins of hojo architecture.

Visiting the Ryoginan Hojo (Abbot's Quarters)

No official visitor information for Ryoginan could be found.

Its kuri and front gate are described on the Ryoginan group page.