Kairyuoji Temple

Kairyuoji Temple

Kairyuoji Temple (海竜王寺) in Hokkejicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, has a Nara-period miniature five-storied pagoda designated a National Treasure on June 9, 1951, and a Nara-period West Golden Hall and a sutra repository of 1288 designated as an Important Cultural Property (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All three were first designated under the former law in the Meiji period.

The miniature pagoda was originally kept inside the West Golden Hall (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Japan Tourism Agency gives its height as 4 metres, calls it the sole survivor of a pair that stood in the East and West Golden Halls, and notes that it is thought to be the smallest and oldest indoor five-storied pagoda in Japan.

The Three Properties

The miniature pagoda closely resembles the East Pagoda of Yakushiji in its brackets, eaves and ceilings and preserves the early Nara style; small as it is, it follows proper building methods and is a valuable record of the techniques of the time (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Two boxed scrolls of the Lotus Sutra were found inside it.

The West Golden Hall is a small Nara-period hall three bays by two under a gabled tiled roof, and the sutra repository is a late Kamakura building of the same size with a hipped tiled roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each property is described on its own page.

Visiting

No official visiting information was found.