Gangoji Temple Gokurakubo Main Hall

A Roof of Seventh-Century Tiles in the Old Quarter of Nara

Look up at the western slope of the Gokurakubō Main Hall at Gangō-ji and you will see rows of dark, rounded clay tiles laid in an overlapping, tapering pattern that looks nothing like the crisp grid of a modern temple roof. This is gyōki-buki, an archaic way of tiling. Some of these tiles were fired in the sixth and seventh centuries and carried north to Nara from Asuka-dera, the temple that came before Gangō-ji. They are among the oldest roof tiles still doing their job anywhere in Japan.

The hall stands in Naramachi, the lattice-fronted old town south of Sarusawa Pond. It is a National Treasure, also known as the Gokurakudō or Mandaradō, and it began life not as a hall of worship but as part of the living quarters of the monks who once filled the great precinct of Gangō-ji.

From Asuka-dera to a Town of Townspeople

Gangō-ji traces its origin to Hōkō-ji, better known as Asuka-dera, founded by Soga no Umako in the late sixth century. It was the first full-scale Buddhist temple complex built in Japan. When the capital moved to Heijō-kyō in the early eighth century, the temple was rebuilt at its new site in Nara and renamed Gangō-ji. It ranked among the seven great temples of the southern capital, and its grounds once stretched across much of present-day Naramachi.

That grandeur did not last. From the late Heian period the temple declined, and medieval fires and unrest destroyed most of its halls. What survived was the Gokurakubō, kept alive by the devotion of ordinary people rather than by aristocratic patronage.

In 1244 the south wing of the East Cloister dormitory was reshaped into a hall for worship. Its neighbour, the Zenshitsu, was divided off at the same time and kept as living space for monks. The exterior you see today dates from that Kamakura-period remodelling, but step inside and the core of the building is older still: the central bay preserves the framework of the eighth-century dormitory.

Why It Is a National Treasure

The hall was recognised as a protected structure in 1901 and designated a National Treasure under the postwar Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties in 1955. Few buildings let you read the history of an early Japanese temple so directly. A Nara-period monks' dormitory is wrapped inside a Kamakura-period worship hall, and the roof carries tiles older than either.

The pillars and beams include timber from the Nara period and earlier, reused when the building was converted. On the west slope the line where the ancient tiles give way to later ones is still visible, a record of repairs spread across more than a thousand years.

The hall also holds the Chikō Mandala, a painted image of the Western Pure Land. The monk Chikō, who is counted as the first of the six patriarchs of Pure Land Buddhism in the southern capital, is said to have received a vision of paradise, and the mandala reproduces what he saw. Gangō-ji became the cradle of Pure Land devotion in Nara because of it. Together with the Zenshitsu and the five-storied miniature pagoda, the hall is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara," inscribed in 1998.

What to Look For

Notice first which way the building faces. Most Japanese temple halls open to the south; this one opens to the east, and there is a reason. The Pure Land of the Chikō Mandala lies, by tradition, in the west. To pray toward it, a worshipper must face west, which means approaching the image from the east. The worship porch was therefore placed on the east side, and the whole hall turned to suit the direction of prayer.

Inside, the old pillars carry inscriptions left by nenbutsu confraternities, the lay believers who gathered here through the medieval centuries to chant the name of Amida Buddha. The marks of that popular faith are part of the fabric of the building.

Step back into the precinct and you will find rows of small stone Buddhas and stupas, gathered from the surrounding district and arranged in what is called the fuToda, a field of stone figures. They speak of the same commoners' devotion that kept the hall standing. Visitors may climb up into the Main Hall to worship; the Zenshitsu next door is usually viewed from outside.

Visiting and the Naramachi Neighbourhood

Gangō-ji is an easy walk from the centre of Nara: about 12 minutes on foot from Kintetsu Nara Station, or 20 minutes from JR Nara Station. The hall keeps regular hours from 9:00 to 17:00, with the last entry at 16:30. General admission is 500 yen for adults, with a slightly higher rate during the autumn special exhibition, 300 yen for junior and senior high school students, and 100 yen for elementary school children.

Inside the precinct, the Hōrinkan storehouse displays the National Treasure five-storied miniature pagoda, a finely built model 5.5 metres tall, along with Important Cultural Properties including a seated Amida Buddha and a wealth of objects left by medieval lay worshippers.

The surrounding streets reward an unhurried walk. Naramachi keeps its old merchant houses, small museums, and craft shops, and the high-speed mochi pounding at nearby Nakatani-dō draws a crowd most afternoons. Sarusawa Pond and the halls of Kōfuku-ji lie a short stroll to the north.