A Granite Pagoda on the Slope of Mount Hyakkai
Hokakuji Byoto (鳳閣寺廟塔, also written Hōkaku-ji Byōtō; the Memorial Pagoda of Hokakuji) is a granite hoto-style stone pagoda erected in 1369 at Torisumi, Kurotaki Village, Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, and designated an Important Cultural Property on 26 March 1915.
It stands on the flank of Mount Hyakkai, about 860 metres high, roughly twenty minutes on foot above the main hall of Hokakuji along the path toward the summit. The climb is steep and the pagoda comes into view inside a small protective shelter, surrounded by cedar. Total height is recorded at 268.0 centimetres.
The structure divides into six parts stacked from the ground up: a base, a kifu or turtle plinth, a receiving seat, the body of the pagoda, the roof, and the finial spire. Every one of them is original. Nothing has been replaced from the finial down to the base, which for a stone monument that has spent more than six and a half centuries on an exposed mountainside is close to remarkable.
Local usage calls it the Rigen Daishi Byoto, after the monk it honours.
Why It Was Designated: a Stone Copy of a Vanished Wooden Type
The inscription that fixes the date is cut into the gozama panel of the base. It gives the year as Shohei 24, which is 1369, and names the maker: Satsuma no Gon-no-kami Yukinaga. No other work by him is known. He is understood to belong to the lineage of I Gyomatsu, a stonemason from Mingzhou in Song China who came to Japan in the early Kamakura period and whose descendants dominated stone carving in the Nara region for generations. Yukinaga is counted among the finest of them in the Nanbokucho years.
The era name matters. Shohei was a Southern Court reign name; the Northern Court called the same year Oan 2. Yoshino was the seat of the Southern Court, and the choice of calendar on this stone records where the mountain's loyalties lay.
What earns the designation is the carving. The body of the pagoda is a single cylinder of stone with squared pillar forms cut at the four corners, doors rendered in relief, and rafters shown in two layers. These are the details of a wooden byoto, a timber memorial hall, reproduced in granite with a precision that goes well past decoration. Wooden pagodas of this type from the fourteenth century have almost entirely disappeared. The stone version therefore preserves a record of the timber architecture it was imitating, which is the argument the Agency for Cultural Affairs rests on when it calls the pagoda valuable for understanding byoto design of the period.
The turtle plinth is the detail visitors remember. A turtle projects from the square base, and descriptions differ on how much of the animal emerges: Kurotaki Village and one published account describe the head and forelegs, another gives head, tail and all four legs. Either way, kifu of this kind are rare in Japanese stonework, and the motif points back to Chinese funerary practice.
Sho-bo, Shugendo, and the Eighteen Thousand Donors
Hokakuji is the head temple of the Hokakuji branch of Shingon Buddhism, with the mountain name Hyakurasan and Nyoirin Kannon as its principal image. Temple tradition credits its opening to En no Gyoja, the legendary founder of Shugendo mountain asceticism, in the seventh century; Kurotaki Village gives the year as 672, other accounts as 678. In 895 the monk Sho-bo, posthumously titled Rigen Daishi, is said to have re-established it as a centre of practice.
Sho-bo, who lived from 832 to 909, is remembered as the reviver of Shugendo and as the founder of Daigoji in Kyoto. The Kurotaki pagoda is described in tradition as his tomb. The arithmetic argues otherwise: 1369 falls some 460 years after his death, which makes the monument a kuyoto, a memorial pagoda raised long afterwards by devotees, rather than a grave marker. Nara Prefecture's heritage database describes it in those terms. Anyone comparing sites should keep this separate from Sho-bo's associations with Daigoji, which are a different matter entirely.
One figure from the record of its construction gives the scale of that devotion. When the pagoda was raised, the monks who contributed money and goods numbered 18,023.
Kurotaki also preserves the story behind the mountain's name. Sho-bo is said to have climbed here under imperial order to subdue a great serpent troubling the ascetics of Mount Omine, and to have sounded a conch shell whose note echoed as though a hundred shells were blowing at once. Hyakkai means hundred conches.
Reaching the Pagoda
This is the hardest of Nara's stone monuments to reach, and the difficulty is worth stating plainly before anyone sets out.
The temple sits east of the Torisumi settlement, north of central Kurotaki over a pass. Public transport goes only part of the way. From Shimoichiguchi Station on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line, buses run toward Kurotaki, with a village community bus continuing to Torisumi; from the end of the line it is a further walk of about an hour. Many visitors take a taxi from Shimoichiguchi to the forest road and walk in from there. Drivers usually leave the car near the Torisumi Kasuga Shrine and the wild plant garden below the temple, then climb about ten minutes on a steep paved slope to the main hall.
From the main hall, the path to the pagoda turns uphill toward the summit and takes roughly twenty minutes. Published distances vary between about 600 metres and one kilometre; the discrepancy probably reflects different starting points. Wear proper footwear. In wet weather the surface is slippery, and there is no shelter along the way.
The precinct itself is open without charge or fixed hours. Parking is described as unavailable in one published account, while visitors commonly report leaving cars near the shrine below, so plan for uncertainty. The pagoda sits under its shelter and can be seen and photographed from outside; no restriction on precinct photography is publicly announced, though asking at the temple office is courteous if anyone is present. There is a replica of the pagoda behind the kuri, the priests' quarters, for those unable to make the climb.
Kurotaki rewards a longer visit. Part of the Omine Okugakemichi, the ascetic pilgrimage route inscribed on the World Heritage List, runs through the village between Makio and Akadaki, and the former village office building, a prefectural cultural property from the late Meiji years, now houses a folk museum.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Nara
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Hokakuji Byoto
- [ Todaiji Great Buddha & Nara Park Deer Experience ]
Q&A
- Can visitors see Hokakuji Byoto, and is there an admission fee?
- Yes. The precinct of Hokakuji is open without charge and without fixed hours, and the pagoda stands under a protective shelter about twenty minutes uphill from the main hall on the path toward the summit of Mount Hyakkai. It can be viewed and photographed from outside the shelter. A replica sits behind the priests' quarters for anyone who cannot manage the climb.
- How do I get to Hokakuji Byoto in Kurotaki Village?
- Public transport reaches only the edge of the area. From Shimoichiguchi Station on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line, take a bus toward Kurotaki and change to the village community bus for Torisumi, then walk roughly an hour. Many visitors instead take a taxi from Shimoichiguchi to the forest road. By car, most people park near Torisumi Kasuga Shrine below the temple and climb about ten minutes to the main hall, then a further twenty minutes to the pagoda. Parking arrangements are described inconsistently in published sources, so allow for uncertainty.
- Is Hokakuji Byoto actually the grave of Sho-bo, Rigen Daishi?
- Tradition describes it as his tomb, but the dated inscription puts its construction in 1369, some 460 years after Sho-bo died in 909. It is therefore generally understood as a kuyoto, a memorial pagoda raised by later devotees, and Nara Prefecture's heritage database describes it that way. The tradition and the inscription are best held side by side rather than resolved against each other.
- What makes Hokakuji Byoto important enough to be an Important Cultural Property?
- Its granite body reproduces the details of a wooden memorial pagoda with unusual precision, including doors in relief and rafters carved in two layers. Almost no timber pagodas of this type survive from the fourteenth century, so the stone copy preserves evidence of the architecture it imitated. The whole monument also survives in its original state from finial to base, and it carries a dated inscription naming its maker, which is uncommon.
- Who built Hokakuji Byoto, and when?
- The gozama panel on the base is inscribed with the year Shohei 24, corresponding to 1369, and names Satsuma no Gon-no-kami Yukinaga as the maker. Shohei was a Southern Court era name, reflecting the Yoshino region's allegiance; the Northern Court called that year Oan 2. Yukinaga is thought to descend from the lineage of I Gyomatsu, a Chinese stonemason active in Nara from the early Kamakura period. Records state that 18,023 monks contributed to the project.
Basic Information
| Name | Hokakuji Byoto (鳳閣寺廟塔), locally called Rigen Daishi Byoto |
|---|---|
| Location | Torisumi, Kurotaki Village, Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structure); designation number 00654 |
| Year Designated | 26 March 1915 (Taisho 4) |
| Quantity | 1 unit |
| Dimensions | Granite hoto-style stone pagoda; total height recorded at 268.0 cm. No dimensions are entered in the national database |
| Owner | Hokakuji temple |
| Public Access | Precinct open without charge or fixed hours. The pagoda is about twenty minutes uphill from the main hall on a steep path; a replica is kept behind the priests' quarters |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hokakuji Byoto
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/2802
- Nara Prefecture historical and cultural resources database: Hokakuji Byoto, stone hoto pagoda
- https://www.pref.nara.lg.jp/ikasu-nara/bunkashigen/main10603.html
- Kurotaki Village: cultural properties
- https://www.vill.kurotaki.nara.jp/kurasi/cultural_property/
- Nara Mahoroba Sommelier Association, Yamato Hyakuji Mairi no. 33: the Rigen Daishi Byoto of Hokakuji
- https://www.stomo.jp/yamato_otera/191128.html
Last verified: 2026.08.24