Korinji Temple Sutra Repository

What is the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository?

The Korinji Temple Sutra Repository (光林寺経蔵, Kōrin-ji Kyōzō) is the Kyōzō standing toward the south of a Jōdo-shū temple precinct in Shinonoi Komatsubara, Nagano City, built in 1865 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2019. It is a single-storey Dozo-zukuri building, a timber frame sealed in thick plaster like a storehouse, under a pyramidal Hōgyō-zukuri roof of metal sheet, with a building area of 52 square meters. Inside it holds an octagonal revolving bookcase. It was renovated in 1965.

The repository sits on a masonry platform and faces north. At a temple where the gate and the main hall face east, the change of direction means that anyone walking over from the hall meets its front squarely. Nagano City's database places it in the southeast of the grounds and gives its size as four bays by four.

A sutra repository stores Buddhist scriptures, and a revolving bookcase, or rinzo, gathers the shelves into an eight-sided case that turns on a central pivot. Tradition holds that one full turn earns the merit of reading every text inside. According to the city database, two ridge tags (Munafuda) survive at Korinji: one dates the building to 1865, the other dates the bookcase to 1880. The case was installed fifteen years after the walls went up.

Why the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository was registered

The Korinji Temple Sutra Repository was registered as number 20-0550 under the criterion of structures that contribute to the historic landscape, on the same day as the temple's bell tower and gate. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it is comparatively large for a repository and gives the precinct much of its character.

The key to the exterior is the plaster. The walls are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster, and the plaster continues right up to the eaves, modeled to look like a boarded eave. A storehouse wall with no exposed timber also protects the scriptures from fire. The front doorway and the side windows have frames with the bell-shaped curve of Katōmado windows, which gives the plain white walls a recognizably Buddhist look.

The city database adds that a Heisei-era repair returned the exterior to its original form: full plastered walls covering the frame, as built in 1865. The white walls you see today are that restoration, made after the 1965 renovation.

What to look for at the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository

Plaster carried up to the eaves

At the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository, look at the point where the wall turns into the eaves. Because the plaster is carried all the way up and shaped like boarded eaves, a white band runs around the building beneath the pyramidal roof, with almost no timber showing.

Bell-shaped doorway and windows

The north doorway and the side windows share the same curved frame. Coming south from the main hall you see the doorway first; walk around the platform and the windows repeat the shape on the sides.

The octagonal revolving bookcase

The interior is a single room with the octagonal bookcase at its center. The Agency describes it as decorated with carving and paint; the city database adds that it has a small surrounding roof, colored carvings in the transom panels and painted patterns surviving on the underside of that roof. The contrast between the white shell of the Korinji repository and the color inside is what makes it memorable.

Visiting the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository

The exterior of the Korinji Temple Sutra Repository can be seen from the precinct. Walk south from the main hall to face its north front, then go around the platform to see the side windows. Directions to the temple are on the Korinji Temple page.

No opening days or viewing arrangements are published for the interior and the bookcase. If you want to see the rinzo, contact the temple in advance. Nor is there any guidance on turning it; even if you are shown inside, ask before touching a painted bookcase. Check about photography with the temple as well.