Enshoji Temple Five-Ring Pagoda

A Memorial Carved with a Death Date

Enshoji Temple Five-Ring Pagoda (圓證寺五輪塔, Enshō-ji Gorintō) is a late Muromachi-period stone memorial in the grounds of Enshoji Temple in Kamimachi, Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture, inscribed with a date of 1550 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1961. It was raised for the warlord Tsutsui Junshō and stands beside the temple's main hall.

A gorintō is built from five stacked stones: a cube, a sphere, a pyramidal roof, a hemisphere and a jewel-shaped top. This one rests on a stone platform, and Ikoma City records its total height as 260.1 centimetres, about 2.6 metres.

According to Ikoma City, the stone carries the name Junshō Eishunbō together with the date of the 20th day of the sixth month of Tenbun 19, which is 1550. That day was Junshō's death date, and name and date together identify the monument as his memorial.

A Stone That Names Its Dead

Five-ring pagodas survive all over Japan, but few say clearly whom they commemorate and when they were made. Enshoji Temple Five-Ring Pagoda does both: a Buddhist name and a death date are cut into the stone itself.

In its description of the main hall, the Agency for Cultural Affairs explains that Enshoji was founded in Nara in 1550 as Junshō's memorial temple, and it mentions this pagoda as his grave monument in the grounds. Temple and monument date from the same year, so the pagoda is a direct record of why the temple exists.

It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1961, 10 years before the main hall. That is why the Agency's 1971 text on the hall notes that the pagoda had already been designated.

Reading the Sanskrit Letters

Ikoma City notes that each of the five stones at Enshoji Temple Five-Ring Pagoda is carved on all four faces with Sanskrit seed syllables in the shimon form, in which the letters take a different variant for each compass direction. Walk once around the monument and you will see the characters change from face to face.

Look for the name and date as well as the syllables. Raking light, early or late in the day, makes the cut lines easier to follow.

After visiting the main hall, step out to its side and face the stone. The hall of 1552 and the memorial of 2 years earlier stand together, still honouring Junshō.

Seeing It in Person

Enshoji Temple Five-Ring Pagoda is inside the temple grounds, so a visit requires an advance telephone reservation with the temple. There is no published guidance on photography; ask when you book. Directions and admission are on the Enshoji Temple page.