Zuiganji Temple Kuri and Corridor

The Kitchen Hall and Its Corridor

The Zuiganji Temple Kuri and Corridor (瑞巖寺庫裏及び廊下, Zuiganji kuri oyobi roka) are the kitchen and administration hall of Zuiganji in Matsushima, Matsushima Town, Miyagi Prefecture, completed in 1609, and the corridor linking it to the main hall, designated together as a National Treasure on June 27, 1959. They had first been protected under earlier law in 1903.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the kuri as 23.6 metres by 13.8 metres, a single storey with a gabled tiled roof entered from the gable end, including its entrance and two eaves on the north side. Miyagi Prefecture notes a ridge tablet dated the 26th day of the third month of 1609. The kuri stands to the front right of the main hall, to the northeast, and is joined to it by an L-shaped corridor, according to the Agency.

Why It Is a National Treasure

The kuri and corridor were designated a National Treasure in 1959. A kuri houses a Zen temple's offices and kitchen. According to the Agency, this one follows the usual Zen form, a great gabled roof entered at the gable end with a smoke vent, but adds Momoyama-style scrollwork to the front gable and bold beamwork inside. Miyagi Prefecture singles out the gable decoration and the composition of the corridor as especially fine.

The temple notes that kitchen halls, being practical buildings, are rarely decorated, but here the intricate beams and struts at the top of the front and the vigorous scroll carving of the gable are set handsomely against white plaster.

What to Look For

Look up at the east gable on the front. The Agency describes struts with three tiers of flower-shaped brackets, two-tiered curved tie beams (ebi-koryo) on either side, and a large vase-shaped strut above the beam flanked by scrolled panels. On the ridge, toward the east, sits a raised smoke-vent roof, which the temple describes as hip-and-gable in form.

Inside, the entrance opens onto a floor of diagonally laid stone, with a plank-floored hall to the west and the kitchen to the north, part of which is the cook's room (tenzo-ryo). West of the hall are tatami rooms: a 24-mat refectory, a 12-mat guest master's room, an 8-mat room and a 4-mat sleeping room. Old plans show the stone floor once extended further south and large hearths lined the north side, but these were not restored in the repairs of 1958, the Agency notes.

Visiting the Kuri

The kuri is on Zuiganji's visitor route. Wheelchairs cannot be used in the kuri, according to the temple. Admission, hours and access are on the Zuiganji Temple page.