Ryosenji Temple Main Hall

A Kamakura Esoteric Hall Dated by Its Ridge Tag

The Ryosenji Temple Main Hall (霊山寺本堂, Ryosenji Hondo) is the main hall of Ryosenji in Nakamachi, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, built in 1283, first designated in 1904 and designated a National Treasure in 1953.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it from a ridge tag recording the raising of the ridgepole on the fourth day of the eleventh month of 1283. It is five bays wide and six deep, single-storey, with a hip-and-gable roof of tiles and a one-bay porch, and the interior is divided into inner and outer sanctuaries.

The temple notes that the hall was dismantled and repaired in 1942.

Why It Is a National Treasure

The Agency points out that in scale and plan the Ryosenji main hall closely resembles the main hall of Chokyuji, a National Treasure of similar date nearby, both being halls for esoteric Buddhism. It then lists considerable differences in design.

The bracketing is a two-step type with tail rafters, and between the posts there are only simple struts, yet the underside of the eaves is richly worked. The complex bracketing of the porch and the cove boards with lozenge and interlocking-ring patterns are especially ornate. Openings use many latticed shutters as well as plank doors, and both sanctuaries have coved, coffered ceilings.

The Agency ranks the Ryosenji Temple Main Hall with the Chokyuji hall as an outstanding Buddhist hall in the Japanese style of the Kamakura period.

What to Look For

At the porch, look up at the bracketing. The temple notes three bracket sets, one on each porch post and one on the frog-leg strut at the centre of the tie beam. Inside that strut is a carved medicine jar, a nod to the healing Buddha Yakushi, the hall's principal image.

The outer sanctuary has no internal posts and a coved, coffered ceiling. Across the three central bays, a transom of clustered lozenge lattice runs above sliding lattice doors that divide it from the inner sanctuary. The temple notes old timbers surviving in the inner sanctuary's lattice windows.

The principal image of Yakushi and the attendants Nikko and Gakko are hidden images kept inside a shrine cabinet. Figures of the Twelve Heavenly Generals, two guardian kings, Dainichi, Amida, Gyoki and Bodhisena are also enshrined.

Visiting the Main Hall

According to the temple, the main hall is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The principal image is a hidden image, and its cabinet is normally closed. Directions and admission for the temple grounds are given on the Ryosenji Temple page.