Hannyaji Temple Romon Gate

A Distinctive Kamakura Gate

The Hannyaji Temple Romon Gate (般若寺楼門) is an unusual two-storey gate with a single bay and passage of around 1264 to 1274 in Hannyajicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and was designated a National Treasure on March 31, 1953 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-bay, single-passage two-storey gate with a hip-and-gable roof of full tiles; designation number 00122.

The Agency record also gives an earlier designation date of April 15, 1903, the date of its designation under the former law.

A Gate Touched by the Daibutsu Style

The Agency's commentary notes that Hannyaji is said to have begun as the retreat Hannyadai founded by the Goguryeo monk Ekan, later given a full set of halls by Emperor Shomu as a temple of imperial prayer. It was revived in the Kamakura period: the thirteen-storey stone pagoda was completed around 1253, and in 1267 a Monju statue commissioned by the monk Eison was consecrated. The gate is also thought to date from around the 1260s (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

It is an unusual two-storey gate with a single bay and passage, its upper storey three bays by two (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is almost entirely in the Japanese style, but its brackets and bearing brackets carry mouldings influenced by the Daibutsu style; mouldings on the ends of the brackets are especially rare.

Why It Is a National Treasure

The Agency describes it as a well-proportioned and finely designed structure, a distinctive two-storey gate of the Kamakura period.

What to Look For

Look at the single-passage two-storey gate and the Daibutsu-style mouldings on the bracket ends (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It is owned by Hannyaji Temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs). No official information on visiting hours or fees was found. The gate, sutra repository and pagoda are introduced together on the Hannyaji Temple page.