Myojuji Temple Main Gate

The Street Gate of Myojuji

The Myojuji Temple Main Gate (妙壽寺山門) is a temple gate of the mid-Edo period in Kanaya-machi, Bungotakada City, Oita Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 27, 2018 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a timber gate 3.5 metres wide with a tiled roof and flanking walls; registration number 44-229.

The Gate on the Street

The Myojuji Temple Main Gate marks the eastern edge of the precinct and serves as the front gate on the street (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Bungotakada City). It is a four-legged gate 3.5 metres wide under a fully tiled gabled roof, with round main posts and square auxiliary posts.

Between the posts sits a frog-leg strut flanked by three-block bracket sets (Agency for Cultural Affairs). In the gable is a large plank strut, and the struts are carved with waves. Bungotakada City dates the gate to the mid-Edo period on the evidence of its carving and detailing.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the gate as a model of design: smaller than the middle gate, but faithful to older forms and dignified in bearing. Bungotakada City describes it in the same terms.

What to Look For

From the street, look up at the large plank strut in the gable of the Myojuji main gate and the waves carved on its struts (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its restrained carving makes a telling comparison with the guardian beasts on the middle gate further in.

Visiting

The Myojuji main gate stands on the east side of the precinct, facing the street (Bungotakada City). No official information on opening hours or visits was found.