Jodoji Temple Entrance and Corridor

About the Jodoji Temple Entrance and Corridor

The Jodoji Temple Entrance and Corridor (浄土寺玄関及び渡廊下, Jōdo-ji Genkan oyobi Watarirōka) in Oji Nishimachi, Oita City, is a late Edo-period corridor and entrance porch linking the Main Hall and the Priests' Quarters, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 23 October 2008.

It consists of a covered corridor running north to south between the Main Hall and the Priests' Quarters, with an entrance porch under a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof attached to its east side. The timber, single-storey structure has a tiled roof and covers just 51 square metres, against 454 square metres for the Main Hall and 164 square metres for the Priests' Quarters. Small as it is, it is what turns those two large buildings into one continuous front.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the final decades of the Edo period, the same years in which the temple was recovering from the fire of 1773 and building its new Main Hall.

Why It Was Registered

The Entrance and Corridor was registered in the 61st round on 23 October 2008 as number 44-0151, for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency describes the Main Hall, this corridor and the Priests' Quarters as standing side by side with their fronts facing east, forming a weighty and unified temple frontage. Take the corridor away and you would have two neighbouring buildings. Its value lies in tying their ends together and giving the east front a single, continuous line.

What to Look For

A corridor that changes underfoot

The southern half, leading to the Main Hall, is a raised corridor floored with boards; the northern half, leading to the living quarters, is laid with tatami. Walk its length and the floor changes in both height and finish at the point where the ceremonial side of the temple gives way to the domestic one.

An open-fronted porch

The front half of the east porch has no walls, its roof carried on square posts. Oita City singles out the two posts standing on stone bases as the porch's most striking feature. The bracket sets on top are described by the Agency as Mitsudo-gumi and by the city as Demitsudo. Either way, the carpentry is restrained, quite unlike the carved Front Gate.

Timber from a lord's pleasure boat?

According to the city's heritage notes, the doors of the raised corridor and its red-lacquered ceiling boards are said to have been taken from a pleasure barge used by the Ogyu Matsudaira lords of the Funai domain. No document supporting this has been published, and the Agency does not mention it. Treat it as a local tradition.

Visiting the Entrance and Corridor

The exterior of the Jodoji Entrance and Corridor can be seen from the gravel forecourt on the east side, between the Main Hall and the Priests' Quarters. Stand where the hall is on your left, the porch in the middle and the quarters on your right, and the aligned frontage the Agency praised becomes obvious. The porch faces east, so the light is best in the morning.

The corridor leads into the priests' living quarters, so visitors should not step up into it uninvited. To see the boat doors or the lacquered ceiling, contact the temple office in advance (097-532-3534). As of October 2026 there was no notice of interior opening.