Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository

Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository: A Nara-Period Log Storehouse

The Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository (東大寺本坊経庫, Honbō Kyōko) is a Nara-period sutra storehouse of azekura log construction in the Honbō, the administrative quarter of Todaiji, in Zoshicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, designated a National Treasure in 1953.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, there is no record of when the Honbo Sutra Repository was built, but the form of its timbers and their weathering point to the Nara period. Where it originally stood is also unknown.

A Storehouse That Moved

In the Edo period the Honbo Sutra Repository stood as the Jōshi storehouse beside an oil storehouse, the building now known as the Tamukeyama Shrine Treasury. The Agency records a tradition that it was moved to its present site in the Shōtoku era (1711 to 1716).

Those were the years just after the Great Buddha Hall was rebuilt, while the Middle Gate and corridors were going up. As the temple grounds were being reorganized, this eighth-century storehouse was given a new home as well.

How the Azekura Is Built

The Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository is three bays by two, with a hipped roof of clay tiles. Stout posts carry a base frame, and on that the walls are built up of timbers triangular in section, stacked and interlocked at the corners. The Agency calls this the basic form of a single-chamber storehouse of the period.

Seen from outside, the triangular logs turn each wall into rows of horizontal ridges, a texture unique to azekura buildings.

Besides double storehouses such as the Shōsōin, Todaiji keeps three single-chamber azekura: the Hokkedō Sutra Repository, the Kanjinsho Sutra Repository and this one. The Agency notes that the Honbo Sutra Repository is the largest of the three, the same size as the Tamukeyama Shrine Treasury.

Why the Honbo Sutra Repository Is a National Treasure

The Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository was first protected in 1906 under the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law and became a National Treasure in 1953.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to its size among the three single storehouses and to how much old material survives, down to the doors and door frames. Its round-section rafters and other early features make it, in the Agency's words, a building fit to represent the azekura architecture of Nara-period Todaiji.

Can You See the Honbo Sutra Repository?

The Todaiji Temple Honbo Sutra Repository stands within the Honbō, the temple's administrative quarter. Todaiji's visitor information makes no mention of public access to it, and it is not set up for general viewing.

For a closer look at azekura construction at Todaiji, the Hokkedō Sutra Repository stands near the Hokkedō. Hours and directions for the temple are on the Todaiji Temple page.