Shuonan Temple Abbot's Hall and Other Buildings

Six Early Edo Temple Buildings

The Shuonan Temple Abbot's Hall and Other Buildings (酬恩庵) is the abbot's hall, entrance, kitchen, latrine, bathhouse and bell tower that make up the scene of a Zen sub-temple of 1650–1654 and later in Takigi, Kyotanabe City, Kyoto Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on June 22, 1971 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records six buildings: the abbot's hall and entrance, kitchen, latrine, bathhouse and bell tower; designation number 01805.

An Early Edo Rebuilding

The abbot's hall and other buildings of Shuonan (Ikkyuji) in Takigi, Kyotanabe City, Kyoto, were built from 1650 to 1654 in the early Edo period (Agency for Cultural Affairs). There are six: the abbot's hall and its entrance, the kitchen, the latrine (tosu), the bathhouse and the bell tower.

Each keeps the forms and methods of its time, and together they make up the main elements of the scene of a Zen sub-temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency values the six buildings as faithful to the forms of their time and as the main elements of the scene of a Zen sub-temple.

The Six Buildings

The abbot's hall is single-storey, 18.0 by 11.5 metres, with a hip-and-gable cypress-bark roof and a memorial hall at the back. The kitchen, of 1652, has a gabled roof with its entrance on the gable end and a partial upper floor. The latrine is two bays square with a gabled pantile roof, the bathhouse five bays by three with a gabled tiled roof, and the bell tower stands on a flared skirt base under a tiled hip-and-gable roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

For the bathhouse, the Agency record gives the date 1786.

What to Look For

At Shuonan, look for the ensemble of the cypress-bark abbot's hall, the bell tower on its skirt base and the other buildings of the sub-temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The six buildings are owned by Shuonan (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to Kyoto Prefecture (updated March 25, 2026), the temple is 25 minutes on foot from Kintetsu Shin-Tanabe Station, 20 minutes from JR Kyotanabe Station, or 5 minutes from the Ikkyuji-michi stop of Keihan Bus; no hours or fees are given. The main hall and the six other buildings are introduced together on the Shuonan Temple (Ikkyuji) page.