Toyokuni Shrine Karamon Gate

A Momoyama Four-Legged Gate, National Treasure since 1953

Toyokuni Shrine Karamon Gate (豊国神社唐門, Hokoku Jinja Karamon) stands at Toyokuni Shrine, Yamato-oji-dori Shomen Higashi-iru, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, designated a National Treasure on 31 March 1953. It had become an Important Cultural Property on 28 December 1897. The quantity is one building, the designation number 00119, and the owner Toyokuni Shrine.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the period as Momoyama and the date as 1573 to 1614, a span of forty-one years covering the whole period. The year of building is not narrowed down.

The form is a four-legged gate with undulating gables front and back, hip-and-gable ends at the sides, and a cypress-bark roof. Nothing is designated as an appendage.

Three Moves, All by Report

What stands out most in the Agency's account is where the gate has been.

The gate is said to have come from Fushimi Castle, to have stood first at Nijo Castle, to have been moved from there to Konchi-in, and to have been brought to its present site when the shrine was rebuilt in the Meiji era.

Fushimi to Nijo, Nijo to Konchi-in, Konchi-in to here: three moves in all.

The wording throughout is said to and it is reported. The Agency asserts none of it. Neither the origin at Fushimi Castle nor the route afterwards is set down as established.

The gate has stood where it stands now only since the Meiji era. For a Momoyama building, its history on this site runs about 150 years.

The Shrine Itself Was Once Destroyed

Behind the moves lies the history of the shrine.

The Toyokuni mausoleum was founded in 1599 by the dying wish of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to enshrine him. In 1615 it was destroyed by the Tokugawa and fell into complete ruin.

Sixteen years from founding to destruction. The year is that of the summer campaign at Osaka.

The shrine buildings standing today were rebuilt in the early Meiji era on the site of Hokoji. Neither the place nor the buildings are those of the founding.

Gate and shrine buildings both reached this site in the Meiji era, the one by removal and the other by rebuilding. The routes differ; the moment of arrival does not.

The Assessment Rests on the Frog-Leg Struts

The Agency's assessment runs as follows.

A four-legged gate with undulating gables front and back and hip-and-gable ends at the sides, using bold and vigorous frog-leg struts and carving, and well expressing the spirit of the Momoyama period.

A frog-leg strut sits above a beam and takes its name from the shape of a frog with its legs apart. It carries load and is decorated at the same time. At the Ishiteji Nio gate too, the struts stood at the centre of the assessment.

Bold and vigorous is the phrase that fixes the character of this gate. What is praised is scale and force rather than fineness.

The roof carries undulating gables front and back and hip-and-gable ends at the sides, so the roof takes a different form at the front from at the sides. An undulating gable rises at the centre and curves back at both ends, giving a wave-like outline seen head-on.

The Agency's related entries list the Chinese gates at Daitokuji, Honganji and Sanboin. Gates of this kind exist in numbers, and this one is placed among them.

Visiting

Toyokuni Shrine is at Yamato-oji-dori Shomen Higashi-iru, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City. As a shrine, the precinct can generally be visited.

The gate stands out of doors and can be seen from outside, though whether the ground beyond it is open follows the shrine's practice.

What repays looking at is the frog-leg struts and the carving, the parts the Agency calls bold and vigorous. They sit above the beams and are read by looking up.

The difference between the undulating gables at front and back and the hip-and-gable ends at the sides can be made out by moving round the gate. Visiting hours and the availability of the shrine office can change, so check before travelling.