Rengeoin Temple South Gate

A Momoyama Gate on the Southern Boundary

The Rengeoin Temple South Gate (蓮華王院南大門, Rengeoin nandaimon) is a gate of 1600 at Rengeoin, better known as Sanjusangendo (三十三間堂), in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, and it was designated an Important Cultural Property on April 7, 1900. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as an eight-legged gate of 3 ken with a single passage, under a gabled tile roof.

According to the Japan Tourism Agency's commentary, the gate was built, together with an earthen wall, to mark the southern boundary of the site when Toyotomi Hideyoshi laid out a vast temple complex in Higashiyama around a huge new Buddha hall and absorbed Sanjusangendo into it.

Why the South Gate Matters

The South Gate is valuable as a surviving piece of the precinct the Toyotomi family created. The Tourism Agency points out that the gate and Hideyoshi's hall were aligned precisely on a north-south axis. The hall is gone, but that axis now runs across the new entrance of the Kyoto National Museum opposite, and the gate remains a marker of where the lost complex stood.

In form it is a hakkyakumon, an eight-legged gate: 3 ken wide with the central 1 ken as the passage, and supporting posts front and back. A firmly dated Momoyama gate of 1600, it preserves, together with the earthen Taiko Wall of the same period, a Momoyama landscape on the south side of Sanjusangendo. The Kyoto City Tourism Association describes both gate and wall as structures associated with Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

What to Look For

In front of the Rengeoin Temple South Gate, start with the facade: three bays wide, with the passage through the central bay and supporting posts lined up on either side. The broad gabled tile roof spans the rows of posts.

Then consider its orientation. The gate marks the southern edge of the Sanjusangendo site, and to its north Hideyoshi's great hall once stood on the same north-south line. Looking north from the centre of the gate, you can picture the axis of the vanished complex.

The earthen Taiko Wall of the same era runs nearby. Seen together, gate and wall make it easy to grasp the outline of the Momoyama precinct that once enclosed the main hall.

Visiting the South Gate

The Rengeoin Temple South Gate stands on the south side of Sanjusangendo. No official guidance was found on access to the gate on its own, so the surest way is to visit it along with the main hall. Main hall hours, admission and access are on the Rengeoin Temple (Sanjusangendo) page.