Yoshida-Ji Temple Pagoda

A Muromachi Pagoda Beside the Pure Land Halls of Ikaruga

An ink inscription brushed onto the central pillar of this pagoda records the year Kansho 4, or 1463. That date sets the Tahoto of Kichiden-ji squarely in the middle of the Muromachi period, and it makes the building the oldest surviving pagoda of its kind in Nara Prefecture. It stands in Koyoshida, a quiet corner of Ikaruga in the hills west of Nara, about two kilometers from the great monastery of Horyu-ji.

A tahoto is a distinctive form of Japanese Buddhist pagoda: two stories tall, with a square lower body and a rounded upper one, topped by a pyramidal tiled roof and a bronze finial. The Kichiden-ji example is a three-bay tahoto roofed in formal hongawara tile, rising a little over twelve meters. It is small, and visitors often comment on how balanced it looks for its size.

The temple that owns it, Kichiden-ji, belongs to the Pure Land (Jodo) school and carries the mountain name Seisuizan. Most people know it by a blunter title: Pokkuri-dera, the temple of the easy death. Worshippers come to pray that, when their time arrives, they will pass quickly and peacefully rather than after a long decline.

Why the Pagoda Matters

The structure was placed under national protection on April 15, 1903, during the Meiji era, and it now holds the rank of Important Cultural Property of Japan. Older guidebooks sometimes call it a national treasure. That reflects the earlier protection system in use before the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect in 1950; the building simply carried its standing over into the current category.

Part of its value lies in how precisely it can be dated. Many old pagodas can be placed only within a rough span of decades, but the inscription on the central pillar fixes this one to a single year, and the joinery and detailing agree with a mid-Muromachi date. That certainty turns the building into a reliable yardstick for studying how tahoto were put together in the fifteenth century.

There is also something unexpected about finding a tahoto here at all. The form, and the esoteric Buddha enshrined inside it, belong to the Tendai and Shingon traditions rather than to Pure Land practice. Kichiden-ji is said to have been opened by the Tendai monk Genshin, also called Eshin Sozu (942 to 1017), and the pagoda keeps a trace of those older affiliations long after the temple turned to Pure Land devotion.

What to Look For

Walk a slow circle around the base before you look up. The lower story carries a veranda with no railing, paneled wooden doors (itakarado) across the central bay, and lattice windows (renji-mado) to either side. A single frog-leg strut, the kaerumata, sits above the central bay, while the side bays are left plain. The restraint is deliberate, and it gives the lower body a calm, even face.

The upper story is where the carpentry grows ambitious. Four-tiered bracket complexes (yotesaki) fan out beneath the eaves to carry the wide roof, and a balustrade rings the round drum. At the four corners of the upper roof sit the onigawara, ridge-end tiles cast with guardian faces. Crowning everything is the bronze sorin finial, made to the standard pattern.

Inside, kept from ordinary view, the pagoda holds a seated image of Dainichi Nyorai of the Diamond Realm, the cosmic Buddha of esoteric Buddhism. The figure sits behind raigo pillars and a painted raigo wall, on a raised altar dais. Temple tradition holds that Genshin had the statue made in memory of his father, Urabe no Masachika.

The image is a hibutsu, a Buddha normally kept concealed. Its doors open only a few days each year, so seeing the Dainichi takes some planning.

Visiting and Nearby

The main hall, a short walk from the pagoda, shelters the temple's principal image: a seated Amida Nyorai about 2.26 meters in image height, carved in the late Heian period and likewise an Important Cultural Property. It ranks among the largest Amida figures in Nara Prefecture, and the temple fondly calls it the Great Buddha of Yamato. One local story links the two works, claiming the pagoda rose on the spot where the stump of the chestnut tree used to carve the Amida once stood.

The pagoda interior opens to visitors on only a handful of days, usually around September 1 to 2 and November 1 to 3, though the exact dates shift from year to year. September 1 also brings the Hojoe, a Buddhist rite of releasing living creatures, when white doves are set free in the precinct; it is sometimes called the dove-release service. Checking the temple's current schedule before a visit is wise.

Kichiden-ji sits within easy reach of the other Ikaruga sights. Horyu-ji, the World Heritage monastery with the oldest wooden buildings on earth, is the obvious neighbor, and the smaller temples of Horin-ji and Hokki-ji, the latter with its own celebrated three-storied pagoda, lie a short way off. Tatsuta-jinja, an old shrine to the wind deities, stands close to the bus stop most visitors use.

The temple keeps viewing hours from 9:00 to 16:00. It is about a twenty-minute walk from Horyuji Station on the JR Yamatoji Line; alternatively, a Nara Kotsu bus from Oji Station stops at Tatsuta-jinja-mae, a few minutes away on foot.