Former Shinpo-in (Nishimiya Family Residence)

What Former Shinpo-in (Nishimiya Family Residence) Is

Former Shinpo-in (Nishimiya Family Residence) is a former sub-temple compound at Tonomine in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, whose guest hall, front gate and inner garden gate, built in 1849 and 1850, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 3 April 2020.

The Japanese name, 旧真法院 (Kyu-Shinpō-in), means "the former Shinpo-in". The family who live here write their name 西宮 and read it Nishimiya, not Nishinomiya as the same characters are read in the city of that name near Kobe.

Until the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in the early Meiji period, the mountain of Tonomine belonged to a Buddhist temple called Myorakuji. Its slopes were dotted with small residential temples attached to it. Nara Prefecture puts their number at 33 at the time of the Meiji Restoration, and Shinpo-in was one of them.

When Myorakuji was refounded as Tanzan Shrine, Shinpo-in ceased to be a temple and became the home of a Shake family, a household serving the new shrine. Nobody tore the buildings down. The guest hall and gates of the sub-temple simply passed into domestic use. The prefecture notes that only three of the old sub-temples still keep buildings from that era, and treats Former Shinpo-in as valuable evidence of how they were built.

How the Compound Unfolds, Gate by Gate

The Shinpo-in compound faces south. The front gate opens in the southern edge of the plot and leads into a forecourt. At the back of the forecourt stands the guest hall with its priests' quarters: a porch under a curved Noki-karahafu gable projects from its southwest corner, and the kitchen and living wing extends from the southeast.

From the south end of the guest hall, beside the porch, a mud-plastered Dobei wall runs west. The second registered gate, the Heijumon Gate, is set into that wall. South of it lies the forecourt; north of it, the main garden. Visitors of the old temple would have passed the front gate, crossed the forecourt and then gone through the Heijumon Gate to reach the garden, moving one threshold deeper each time.

In the Agency for Cultural Affairs classification, only the guest hall counts as a building. The two gates are registered as structures.

The Three Registrations at Former Shinpo-in

All three entries of Former Shinpo-in (Nishimiya Family Residence) were added to the national register in the 95th round of registrations, gazetted on 3 April 2020, as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. Their registration numbers run consecutively from 29-0287 to 29-0289.

• Guest Hall and Priests' Quarters (Nishimiya Family Residence Main House): 1850, no. 29-0287
• Front Gate (Nishimiya Family Residence Front Gate): 1849, altered around 1985, no. 29-0288
• Heijumon Gate (Nishimiya Family Residence Heijumon Gate): 1850, altered around 1985, no. 29-0289

Two different criteria were applied. The guest hall was registered as a building that serves as a model of its type. The gates were registered for contributing to the historic landscape. Put simply, the hall was judged on its quality as sub-temple architecture, and the gates on the part they play in giving the compound its face.

The dates fall within a single year: the front gate in 1849, the hall and the inner gate in 1850. The core of the compound was evidently put in order in one campaign. Both gates were originally roofed with cypress bark. According to the prefecture, around 1985 the front gate was re-covered in pantiles and the Heijumon Gate in copper sheet.

The same round of registrations also took in five buildings at Former Jimon-in (Suhara Family Residence), another former sub-temple on the mountain. Measured from the database coordinates, it lies about 340 metres east of Former Shinpo-in, with Tanzan Shrine between the two.

Visiting Former Shinpo-in and Getting There

Former Shinpo-in (Nishimiya Family Residence) is a private home where the Nishimiya family live. None of the published sources from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Nara Prefecture or Sakurai City mention any public or special opening, and there are no visiting hours or admission fees. Plan on the basis that neither the grounds nor the interiors can be entered. Questions about the registered buildings go to the Cultural Properties Division of the Sakurai City Board of Education (tel. 0744-42-6005).

The nearest station is Sakurai, served by the JR Sakurai Line and the Kintetsu Osaka Line. From the south exit, the Sakurai City Community Bus on its Tonomine Line runs to the terminus, Tanzan Jinja, in 24 to 26 minutes. The adult fare is 570 yen. Buses run roughly once an hour, and some services do not operate on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. By the database coordinates, Former Shinpo-in sits about 150 metres west of Tanzan Shrine in a straight line.

Journey times, fares and frequency were checked on 15 October 2026 against the Sakurai City Community Bus timetable revised on 1 April 2025.