Shorenin Temple Seiryuden (Former Butokuden of the Dai Nippon Butokukai Kyoto Branch)

A Martial-Arts Hall Moved to the Eastern Hills

The Shorenin Temple Seiryuden (Former Butokuden of the Dai Nippon Butokukai Kyoto Branch) (青蓮院青龍殿（旧大日本武徳会京都支部武徳殿）) is a former martial-arts hall moved to become the outer sanctuary of a fire-ritual hall of 1913 in Zushiokukachocho, Yamashina Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on February 17, 2022 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 537 square metres, moved in 2014; registration number 26-0646.

A Butokuden Moved to the Hilltop

The Seiryuden was built in 1913 as the Butokuden, the martial-arts hall of the Kyoto branch of the Dai Nippon Butokukai, and was moved in 2014 to the top of the Higashiyama hills to serve as the outer sanctuary of a goma hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Above the wooden floor of the central practice hall the space rises high to clerestory windows, and dormer gables decorate the front and back of the gabled roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The spectator seating around the hall lies under a skirt roof, and a cusped gable crowns the main entrance.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as a model of design.

What to Look For

Look for the tall space of the practice hall with its clerestory and the dormer gables on the roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency notes that it was little altered when moved and is a well-preserved modern Japanese-style building.

Visiting

It is owned by Shorenin Temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs). No official information on public access was found.