Korinji Temple Main Gate

What is the Korinji Temple Main Gate?

The Korinji Temple Main Gate (光林寺山門, Kōrin-ji Sanmon) is the entrance gate of a Jōdo-shū temple in Shinonoi Komatsubara, Nagano City, built in 1826 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2019. It is a one-bay Yakuimon in timber with a gabled roof of interlocking pan tiles (Kirizuma-zukuri, Sangawara-buki), a frontage of 3.4 meters, and short Sodobei walls on either side.

The gate stands midway along the east edge of the precinct and faces east, right at the top of the stone approach steps, with the main hall directly behind it on the same line. Nagano City describes it as a rebuilding of 1826, which implies that an earlier gate preceded it.

A yakuimon is a gate whose two main posts are backed by a pair of rear posts, with one gabled roof spanning all four. At 3.4 meters across the Korinji Temple Main Gate is not large, but it packs more carving and painted relief into that frame than its size would suggest.

Why the Korinji Temple Main Gate was registered

The Korinji Temple Main Gate was registered under the criterion of structures that serve as a model of their type, as number 20-0552. The temple's sutra repository (20-0550) and bell tower (20-0551) were registered the same day, but under a different criterion, as structures that contribute to the historic landscape. Of the three, only the gate was judged a model of its form.

The official description gives two reasons. First, the frame is sturdy: curved Kōryō tie beams span every bay on the sides and back, locking the posts together. Second, the ornament is lavish: those beams carry richly carved relief patterns, and above the Kabuki crossbeam on the front sits a carving of four dragons twisted around one another. Sound construction and showy decoration in the same small gate is what earned the registration.

Nagano City's own database adds that the dragon carving is cut with care and strength.

What to look for at the Korinji Temple Main Gate

Four dragons above the crossbeam

Stand in front of the Korinji Temple Main Gate and look up at the space between the crossbeam and the roof. Four dragons fill it, their bodies knotted together. Follow each head and each coil in turn and you begin to see how the carver fitted the four into one block.

Carved beams on the sides and back

Once through, turn around. The tie beams on the side and rear bays are carved as well, so the decoration is not confined to the street face. It is easy to walk past without noticing; seen from the main hall side, the run of carved rear beams is clear.

The flanking walls

Short walls extend to the left and right, showing that the gate was built as part of an enclosure rather than as a free-standing monument. The Agency's structural note on the Korinji gate lists them explicitly.

Visiting the Korinji Temple Main Gate

Because the Korinji Temple Main Gate is the entrance to the precinct, you see its front as you climb the approach and its back from inside the grounds. It is in daily use as a passage and you can walk through it. Directions to the temple are on the Korinji Temple page.

The dragons are hard to read from directly underneath; a spot partway up the steps, or a few paces back from the gate, gives a better angle. No photography policy is published, though the gate's exterior is in plain view from the public approach. When services or events bring people through, keep the passage clear.