A Thirteen-Story Pagoda Found Nowhere Else
On the forested slopes of Tōnomine, in the hills south of Sakurai in Nara Prefecture, a wooden pagoda of thirteen tiers climbs toward the canopy. There is no other like it. Rebuilt in 1532, the pagoda at Tanzan Shrine is the only thirteen-story wooden pagoda surviving anywhere in the world, and a pagoda has stood on this spot, in one form or another, since the seventh century.
The shrine that surrounds it honors Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669), the statesman who set the Taika Reform in motion. Vermilion halls, roofed in cypress bark and painted in dense color, step up the mountainside around the pagoda. For most of its history this was not a shrine at all but a Buddhist temple, Myōraku-ji, and the buildings still carry the marks of that older identity.
From a Mountain Conspiracy to a Family Shrine
The name Tanzan comes from a conversation. In 645, Naka-no-Ōe, the future Emperor Tenji, and Nakatomi no Kamatari climbed this mountain to plan in secret the overthrow of the Soga clan, the act that opened the Taika Reform. The hill was afterward called Kataraiyama, the mountain of talking, which in time contracted to Tanzan.
Kamatari was first buried in Settsu Province. His son Jōe, a monk who had studied in Tang China, moved part of his father's remains to Tōnomine and raised the thirteen-story pagoda in 678 as a memorial. A lecture hall followed, and in 701 a hall was built to hold an image of Kamatari himself. Around these the temple of Myōraku-ji grew.
Under the Fujiwara the temple prospered and kept its own armed monks. Later, as a holding of Enryaku-ji, it was drawn into the long rivalry with Kōfuku-ji in Nara, and its halls burned and rose again more than once. The Tokugawa shogunate granted it an income of three thousand koku. Then in the early Meiji period the government ordered Shinto and Buddhism separated. The name Myōraku-ji was abolished, the Buddhist halls were renamed or pulled down, and what remained became Tanzan Shrine.
What the Designation Protects
Most of the older buildings on the mountain are Important Cultural Properties, and they were recognized in stages. The thirteen-story pagoda was listed in 1900 and the Gonden hall in 1915. The main cluster of shrine buildings, among them the main hall, worship hall, tower gate, roofed corridors, and treasure houses, was designated together in 1977.
What gives the group its standing is the way it preserves a syncretic complex almost intact. Few places in Japan still show, in their original arrangement, how a Buddhist temple and a clan shrine once shared a single precinct. The former lecture hall stands directly in front of the pagoda, a layout with few parallels, and the vermilion main hall is admired as a forerunner of the decorative style later used at Nikkō Tōshōgū.
What to Look For
Start with the pagoda. Its roofs are laid in cypress bark, and the first story is noticeably broader than those above, so the structure tapers as it rises. The bronze finial carries seven rings rather than the nine usual on Japanese pagodas. Standing beneath it, you look up through thirteen receding eaves toward the wooded ridge of Gohaketsu-zan, where Kamatari's tomb lies.
The main hall repays slow looking. Built in its current form in 1850, it follows the rare sangensha sumikiiri kasuga style, its whole exterior worked in lacquer and bright pigment. Inside, four pillars frame an inner sanctum, and the ceiling around them is finished as exposed, decorated rafters. The richness of the color earned the shrine its nickname, the Nikkō of Kansai.
The worship hall of 1520 is built out over the slope like a stage, its vermilion posts framing a broad space whose central ceiling is made of fragrant kyara wood. Roofed corridors bend around the main hall to the east and west, their cypress-bark roofs following the fall of the ground. To either side of the main hall stand two log-built treasure houses of 1619, raised in the azekura method once used for the imperial storehouse at Nara.
When to Go and What Lies Nearby
Tōnomine is known above all for autumn, when some three thousand maples turn over the valley and the pagoda shows red through the leaves. Spring brings around five hundred cherry trees, and the deep snow of winter has its own admirers. Twice a year, on 29 April and 3 November, the shrine holds its Kemari festival, in which players in Heian-era costume keep a deerskin ball aloft with their feet, reviving a courtly game brought from the continent more than a thousand years ago.
The shrine sits about eight kilometers south of Sakurai Station, reached by Nara Kotsu bus to the Tanzan-jinja stop. From there a walk of roughly an hour along the old Tōnomine road leads to Shōrin-ji, whose eleven-headed Kannon is a National Treasure. The wooded peak behind the precinct, Gohaketsu-zan, can be climbed for the view and for Kamatari's grave.
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Q&A
- Is the thirteen-story pagoda really the only one in the world?
- It is the only wooden pagoda of thirteen stories still standing anywhere. Tall stone and masonry pagodas of many tiers exist elsewhere, but no other wooden one of this height survives. The present building dates from 1532.
- Can visitors go inside the buildings?
- The precinct is open to visitors, who walk among the halls and view the interiors of the worship hall and main hall from the designated areas. An admission fee applies, and hours vary by season, so check the shrine's information before a late-afternoon visit.
- Why does a shrine look so much like a temple?
- For most of its history the site was the temple Myōraku-ji, where Shinto and Buddhist worship were combined. The separation order of the early Meiji period turned it into a shrine, but the older temple buildings, including the pagoda and former lecture hall, were kept.
- When is the best time for autumn color?
- The maples usually reach their peak from the middle to the end of November, around the time of the Kemari festival on 3 November. Weekday mornings are quieter than weekend afternoons.
- How do I reach the shrine without a car?
- Take a Nara Kotsu bus from Sakurai Station, on the JR Sakurai Line and the Kintetsu Osaka Line, to the Tanzan-jinja terminus, about eight kilometers south. Buses are infrequent, so confirm the timetable in advance.
Basic Information
| Name | Tanzan Shrine (談山神社) |
|---|---|
| Location | Tōnomine, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Properties (architecture); pagoda 1900, Gonden 1915, main shrine group 1977 |
| Thirteen-story pagoda | Rebuilt 1532; cypress-bark roof; height about 17 m; world's only wooden thirteen-story pagoda |
| Main hall | Rebuilt 1850; sangensha sumikiiri kasuga style; lacquer and polychrome decoration |
| Enshrined deity | Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669) |
| Owner | Tanzan Shrine |
| Access | Nara Kotsu bus from Sakurai Station to Tanzan-jinja (about 8 km) |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/2638
- Cultural Heritage Online
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/db/heritages/detail/201559
- Tanzan Shrine Official Site
- https://www.tanzan.or.jp/
- Sakurai City Tourism Association
- https://sakuraikanko.com/
Last verified: 2026.06.04
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Tanzan Shrine Sub-shrine Sosha Worship Hall 0.01 km
- Tanzan Shrine Akaya 0.01 km
- Tanzan Shrine Sub-shrine Hiei Shrine Main Hall 0.03 km
- Tanzan Shrine Shrine worship hall 0.04 km
- Tanzan Shrine West Treasure House 0.08 km
- Tanzan Shrine Tower gate 0.09 km
- Tanzan Shrine West Corridor 0.10 km
- Tanzan Shrine worship hall 0.10 km
- Tanzan Shrine Main shrine 0.11 km
- Tanzan Shrine Totoro 0.12 km
- Tanzan Shrine Eastern Treasure House 0.13 km
- Tanzan Shrine East Shrine of the Sub-shrine 0.15 km