Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging

What Is Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging?

Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging (長徳寺行在所, Chōtoku-ji Anzaisho) is a two-storey timber reception wing at Chotokuji in Daieicho, Shibata City, Niigata Prefecture, moved to the temple in 1921 from a villa where Emperor Meiji was lodged, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 27, 2017.

An anzaisho is a temporary imperial residence used while the emperor was traveling. The building adjoins the south side of the priests' quarters, has a copper-sheet roof, and covers a building area of 109 square meters. Of the five registered structures at Chotokuji, it is the youngest and the only one with two storeys.

Emperor Meiji's Tour and the Shirase Family

In 1878 Emperor Meiji set out on a tour of the Hokuriku region and the Tokaido. According to the Niigata Prefectural Library, the imperial party entered Niigata Prefecture on September 10 of that year and spent 18 days in the prefecture.

The Shirase family, wealthy merchants based in Shibata, prepared rooms to receive him. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging as the part of the Shirase family's villa in Niigata city that was built as a lodging for Emperor Meiji, later dismantled and rebuilt at the temple. A local newspaper reports that the emperor spent three nights there.

Why a section of the villa came to Chotokuji is not explained in the Agency's or the city's records.

Two Dates: 1878 and 1921

Two dates overlap in this building. One is 1878, the year of the imperial stay. The other is 1921, the date the Agency's database gives for the structure.

Shibata City's list of cultural properties records 1921 as the year of the move, and the Agency describes the alcove shelving and the sliding fittings as typical of the Taisho period. The reasonable reading is that the details of Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging as it stands today owe a good deal to the work done around 1921. How much of the 1878 timber or room layout survives cannot be confirmed from the published sources.

A Throne Room in a Light Sukiya Style

On the ground floor of Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging, three rooms are arranged around a 10-mat room that is thought to have been the throne room, where the emperor was seated. The upper floor holds two more rooms.

Although these are formal rooms, no Nageshi rail runs around the walls. Leaving it out keeps the wall surfaces clean and gives the rooms the lighter feel of the Sukiya-zukuri manner rather than the stiffer look of a formal shoin reception room. The Tokowaki shelving and the fittings are carefully designed, and the Agency calls the whole an elegant work of the Taisho period. A local newspaper points to the wave-patterned lattice of the glass doors as the building's signature detail.

For this design, Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of design, as registration number 15-462.

Seeing Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging

Chotokuji Temple Imperial Lodging is not normally open. A local newspaper reported that it was shown to the public for the first time on June 15 and 16, 2024, during Shibata Terabiraki, an event held across the town's temple district.

The temple has not announced further openings. To ask about seeing the interior or taking photographs, contact Chotokuji in advance. On other days, the building can only be seen from outside, as part of the block attached to the priests' quarters. Directions to the temple are on the Chotokuji Temple page.