Hannyaji Temple

Hannyaji Temple

Hannyaji Temple (般若寺) in Hannyajicho, Nara City, has a two-storey gate of around the 1260s designated a National Treasure in 1953, and a thirteen-storey stone pagoda of 1253 and a late Kamakura sutra repository designated as an Important Cultural Property (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The gate and pagoda were also designated under the former law in the Meiji period.

The Agency's commentary notes that the temple is said to have begun as the retreat Hannyadai founded by the Goguryeo monk Ekan and later became a temple of imperial prayer under Emperor Shomu. Revived in the Kamakura period, it completed the stone pagoda around 1253, and in 1267 consecrated a Monju statue commissioned by the monk Eison.

The Three Structures

The gate is an unusual two-storey gate with a single passage, almost wholly in the Japanese style but with Daibutsu-style mouldings on its bracket ends, a distinctive Kamakura gate (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The stone pagoda was built in the Kamakura revival and is designated with an old stone finial and an old copper finial. The sutra repository behind it, facing west, is a plain gabled building and one of the few medieval sutra stores to survive (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

No official information on visiting hours or fees was found.