Shin-Yakushiji Temple Jizo Hall

A one-bay hall from 1266

The Shin-Yakushiji Temple Jizo Hall (新薬師寺地蔵堂, Shin-Yakushiji Jizōdō) is a small Buddhist hall built in 1266 at Shin-Yakushiji in Takabatake, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1917. It measures one bay by one bay, has a single storey, and carries an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof of Hongawarabuki tiles, entered from the gable end in the style called Tsumairi.

Walking up from the South Gate, you find it in front of the main hall on the left, mirroring the Belfry on the right. The two Kamakura buildings bracket the Nara-period hall between them. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records its date as the third year of Bun'ei, 1266, and of the four Kamakura buildings in the grounds it is the only one dated to a specific year.

It was designated on 13 August 1917, the same day as the temple's East Gate.

As small as a Buddhist hall gets

The temple presents the Shin-Yakushiji Jizo Hall as a leading Kamakura-period example of the one-bay-square hall. There are four posts, one at each corner, and a single opening between them on every side. As a plan, it is about as small as a Buddhist hall can be.

On that tiny footprint sits a formal roof: hip-and-gable, clad in heavy clay tiles, and turned so that the triangular gable faces the front. Stand in front and the gable is right in your line of sight, which makes the hall look taller and more ceremonious than its size would suggest.

The firm date matters too. The Agency records the other three Kamakura buildings here only by broad period, early or late Kamakura. The Jizo Hall alone carries a single year, which pins at least one step of the temple's medieval rebuilding to 1266.

Three figures from three periods

According to the temple, the Jizo Hall now houses three standing figures: an Eleven-Headed Kannon from the Kamakura period, owned by the local Konishi-cho neighbourhood association; a Yakushi Nyorai from the Muromachi period; and a Jizo Bosatsu from the Nanbokucho period.

So the hall named for Jizo holds work spanning three periods, and its images belong partly to the temple and partly to the neighbourhood. It is a small building that has served both the temple and the streets around it.

Seeing the Jizo Hall

The Shin-Yakushiji Jizo Hall stands to the left of the path between the South Gate and the main hall, and the exterior can be viewed freely from the grounds. It is small enough that a few steps take you from the gable detail at the front to the sweep of the eaves at the side.

Two viewpoints are worth it: straight on, for the gable-end entrance, and from a front corner, to see how far the roof projects beyond such a small plan. Access to the images inside may vary, so check with the temple before you go if you hope to see them.