Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall

Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall: The Hall of the Shunie

The Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall (東大寺二月堂, Nigatsu-dō) is a mid-Edo-period Buddhist hall on the rising ground east of the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji in Zoshicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, rebuilt in 1669 and designated a National Treasure in 2005.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Nigatsudō was founded by Jitchū, a senior disciple of Rōben, as a hall for the Jūichimen Keka, a rite of repentance before the Eleven-Headed Kannon, and a hall probably stood here by the late eighth century. The rite is said to have begun in 752. Because it was held in the second month of the lunar calendar it was called the Shunie, the second-month rite, and the hall became the Nigatsudō, the Second-Month Hall; records show the name in use by the late ninth century at the latest.

Spared by War, Lost to Its Own Rite

The Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall came through the fires of 1180 and 1567 and stood through the ancient and medieval periods. In the second month of 1667, however, fire broke out in the inner sanctuary during the Shunie itself and the hall burned down.

The present Nigatsudō was rebuilt with the shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna as patron: the ridgepole went up in the fifth month of 1669 and the work was finished in the twelfth. The Agency notes that the monks' Shunie diary names the carpenters, among them Hirai Kin'emon of Hōryūji. It counts the hall among the outstanding buildings of large-scale construction by the Tokugawa shogunate.

A Stage Over the Slope and a Hall Within a Hall

The Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall faces west over ground that falls steeply away. It is seven bays across and ten deep under a great hipped roof of clay tiles, and the open front bay and worship hall are built out over the slope on a Kakezukuri frame of tall posts. The railed veranda on the west, known as the butai or stage, rests on brackets inserted three tiers deep into the posts.

Inside, the inner sanctuary, three bays square, holds the main image. An outer sanctuary wraps it on three sides in a U shape, and beyond that a ring of small rooms, the tsubone, serves for retreat and for listening to the rites. In front lies a worship hall five bays by three. The inner sanctuary has its own low pillars, bracket sets and a gabled roof carried on tie-beams and struts, so it reads as a separate small hall standing inside the large one.

Ceilings change from room to room: an open gabled frame over the inner sanctuary, coffered ceilings over the outer sanctuary, worship hall and west rooms, and simple batten ceilings over the side rooms. The Agency praises the choice timber, careful workmanship, fine proportions and sturdy structure as the best of Edo-period building.

Why the Nigatsudo Is a National Treasure

The Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1944 and became a National Treasure on 27 December 2005.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it for carrying forward a plan and spaces that grew from the ancient into the medieval period while reaching a high level of finish with Edo-period techniques, and as an exceptional building bound inseparably to the Shunie, a rite performed without break since antiquity. The temple adds that its acoustics and the layout of inner sanctuary, outer sanctuary and worship hall suit the rite remarkably well.

Visiting the Nigatsudo and the Shunie

The Todaiji Temple Nigatsudo Hall can be visited 24 hours a day, free of charge. From the west veranda you look across the roof of the Great Buddha Hall to the city of Nara. Photography, sketching and flashlights are not allowed inside, tripods may not be used around the hall or on the veranda, and the temple asks visitors not to photograph worshippers making repeated circuits of the hall. The hall is open at night, but please keep quiet.

A service is held on the 18th of every month, and visitors may listen from the west rooms for about two hours from 8:00 a.m. (April to October) or 8:30 a.m. (November to March). The main Shunie runs from 1 to 14 March, with great torches lit each night to light the monks' way. The area is extremely crowded then, so read the temple's guidance before going. Directions are on the Todaiji Temple page.