Futaiji Temple Stupa

A Pagoda With a Vanished Upper Story

What visitors encounter today appears at first glance to be a single-story Buddhist hall with a square plan and a graceful tile roof. The structure measures roughly 3.14 metres on each side across three bays, capped now with pantile roofing. The trained eye, however, soon notices something unusual about the proportions: the building is taller and more solidly framed than an ordinary chapel of comparable size. This is because the surviving structure is in fact only the first story of what was once a two-tier tahōtō.

Historical records and the late-Edo-period illustrated guide Yamato Meisho Zue confirm that during the Kansei era (1789–1801), a cypress-bark-roofed upper story still rose above the present roof, bringing the total height of the pagoda to about 13.6 metres. Sometime in the early Meiji period — most likely during the long stretch when the temple had no resident priest, between 1873 and 1923 — the upper story and the central spire were lost. The first floor was carefully re-roofed and preserved as a Buddhist hall in its own right, leaving us with the dignified but incomplete silhouette we see today.

The Temple Behind the Tower

To understand why this pagoda matters, it helps to know the story of the temple that surrounds it. Tradition records that in the year 847, the Heian-era nobleman, poet, and reputed lover Ariwara no Narihira carved a standing image of Shō Kannon and enshrined it on a parcel of land that had once been the retreat of his grandfather, the retired Emperor Heizei. The site came to be called Futaiten Hōrin-ji — "the temple of the wheel of dharma that never turns back" — abbreviated since to Futai-ji.

Narihira, one of the legendary "Six Poetic Geniuses" of his age and the model for the protagonist of the courtly romance Tales of Ise, gave the temple its enduring nickname Narihira-dera. The hall and pagoda we visit today, however, were rebuilt in the Kamakura period after the temple buildings were destroyed in the catastrophic Nanto fires of 1181. The reconstruction is associated with the great Shingon Risshū reformer Eison, who revived many neglected Nara temples in the thirteenth century. The pagoda is the oldest surviving structure on the precincts.

Why It Was Designated an Important Cultural Property

The pagoda's designation rests on several converging values. First, it is one of relatively few medieval tahōtō to survive in the Nara basin, and the only one still standing at this once-prominent Heian foundation. Second, even with its upper tier gone, the bracketing, beam work, and proportions of the lower story preserve genuine Kamakura-period carpentry of high quality, providing scholars with primary evidence for medieval pagoda construction.

Equally important are the discoveries made during the major dismantling repair carried out in 1934. Inscriptions written in ink on the rafters were brought to light, revealing details about the building's history, and documents indicate that the interior once housed many small Jizō Bodhisattva statues attributed to the renowned Kamakura-period sculptor Kaikei. The interior walls bear painted images of the Eight Shingon Patriarchs, a rare surviving sequence of doctrinal portraits. Together, the building, its painted programme, and the documentary record form an unusually complete picture of medieval Buddhist devotional space.

Highlights for the Visitor

The pagoda sits at the eastern edge of the small temple precinct, framed by trees that turn brilliantly in autumn. Visitors typically approach by passing through the Important Cultural Property south gate, dating from 1317, then crossing the garden in front of the main hall before reaching the pagoda itself. From the path that runs beside the pond, photographers prize the view across the water, where the pagoda appears reflected among seasonal flowers.

The interior is opened to the public only once a year, on 28 May, the traditional anniversary of Narihira's death, during the temple's "Narihira Memorial" observances. On this single day, those who visit are able to see the murals of the Eight Patriarchs in their original architectural setting — a moving experience for anyone interested in medieval Japanese painting and ritual space. Even when the doors are closed, the structure rewards quiet inspection from the surrounding garden, where seasonal blooms — kerria and camellia in spring, yellow iris and water lily in early summer, maple in autumn — set off its weathered timbers in turn.

Around Futai-ji

Futai-ji lies within easy reach of several other distinguished sites along the historic Saho-ji route. Hokke-ji, founded in the eighth century by Empress Kōmyō and once the head temple of the nation's nunneries, stands to the southwest with its celebrated Eleven-Headed Kannon. A short walk away, Kairyūō-ji shelters another revered Eleven-Headed Kannon and is traditionally visited by travellers praying for safe journeys. The expansive Heijō Palace Site, a UNESCO World Heritage component, lies just beyond, offering visitors a chance to walk across the reconstructed Daigokuden audience hall and grasp the scale of the eighth-century capital. Combining Futai-ji with one or two of these neighbours makes for an unhurried half-day of quiet, reflective sightseeing well away from the busier precincts of central Nara.