The Largest Dated Kunisaki-to
Chogi-ke Hoto (長木家宝塔, also written Chōgi-ke Hōtō and read Chōkike in some sources), a stone hōtō pagoda in the Higashikataku district of Kunisaki Town, Kunisaki City, Oita Prefecture, was erected in 1321 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 20 March 1954.
It stands 3.97 metres high, cut from hornblende andesite, inside a private burial ground that the Chōgi family has used since the medieval period. Among inscribed examples of its type that survive complete and unaltered, this is the largest known.
Its type has a name that exists nowhere else in Japan. A hōtō is a stone pagoda with a rounded body and a single pyramidal roof, found across the country. On the Kunisaki peninsula, masons inserted an extra element between the square base and the rounded body: a pedestal carved as a lotus, or as kaeribana, downturned lotus petals, or sometimes both stacked together. That insertion is the whole difference, and it is enough to define a regional form. Around five hundred of these Kunisaki-tō are recorded, roughly nine tenths of them on the peninsula itself. The oldest dated one, at Iwatoji, was cut in 1283.
The pedestal changes the proportions completely. It lifts the body clear of the base, introduces a band of soft curved carving between two blocks of straight geometry, and gives the pagoda a poise that plain hōtō elsewhere do not have.
A Man Who Built His Own Memorial
Long inscriptions in a flowing hand run around the body of the pagoda, and they record something unusual. The patron was Ki no Nagasada, holding the title of Saemon-no-jō, and he raised the tower on the eighteenth day of the tenth month of Genkō 1 (元亨元年), the year of the metal rooster, corresponding to 1321. The mason is named as a monk, Son, with the rest of the name now unreadable. Kunisaki City records that the Chōgi family who maintain the site today are said to descend from the Ki.
Nagasada built the pagoda for himself, while he was alive. Japanese calls this gyakushu: performing your own memorial rites in advance, transferring the merit to your own future rather than trusting descendants to do it. The practice was widespread among the medieval gentry and it explains why so many stone pagodas in this district carry the name of a living patron rather than a dead one.
The verse cut into the stone reads as a meditation on that decision. It speaks of coming and going, of birth and death leaving no track behind, of more than seventy years spent inside a dream, and it asks who it is that wears the true face, before turning to earth, water, fire, wind and void, the five elements from which Buddhist thought builds the body. The phrase about seventy years suggests, though it does not prove, that Nagasada was already an old man when he commissioned the work.
Two further physical details belong with the inscription. The base is built in three tiers, and the uppermost tier is divided on all four faces into three panels, each holding a kōzama, the ogee-arched recess used as a decorative frame on stone monuments. And there are holes: one in the neck of the pagoda, others in the downturned lotus petals of the pedestal, cut to receive offerings and sutra copies. Kunisaki City's survey notes that these passages open into the hollow interior of the base. The tower is not a solid marker but a container, and what it was built to hold was text.
Visiting Higashikataku
This is private property. The pagoda sits within a family cemetery that is still in use, and it is owned by an individual rather than a temple or the city. Visitors are welcome to look and to photograph, but should behave as they would in any graveyard, keep to the path, and leave the grave markers alone.
A vehicle road leads up from the lane below to a parking area near the site. At the approach stand a kōshintō, a stone marker of the folk observance of the sixty-day cycle, and a signboard explaining the pagoda. A small brightly painted shrine nearby holds a compact figure of Bishamonten. There is no admission charge and no set opening time. Signposting from the main road is thin, so allow time to find the turn.
The same small district holds two more designated stone monuments, both worth the short walk. The Naru itabi, a prefecturally designated slab stele, carries dates of 1319 and 1320. The Higashikataku itabi, designated by the city, is a paired stele standing 166 and 153 centimetres, inscribed with the era name Genō 3, the year that was renamed Genkō 1 (元亨元年), which is to say 1321 again. Three dated monuments within a few hundred metres, all from the same handful of years, give an unusually tight picture of one community's commissioning habits in the 1320s.
One point of caution when navigating. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database still lists the address as Higashikataku 3037, Kunisaki Town, Higashikunisaki City. There has never been a city of that name: Higashikunisaki was the district, and municipal mergers made the area part of Kunisaki City in 2006. Enter Kunisaki City into a navigation system, not the database wording.
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Q&A
- Can visitors see Chogi-ke Hoto, and is there an admission charge?
- There is no charge and no fixed opening time, but the pagoda stands in a privately owned family cemetery still in use. Visitors should treat it as they would any burial ground, keep to the path and avoid touching the grave markers. A parking area is reached by the vehicle road below the site.
- What makes Chogi-ke Hoto a Kunisaki-to rather than an ordinary hoto?
- A Kunisaki-tō carries a pedestal between the square base and the rounded body, carved as a lotus seat, as downturned lotus petals, or both. Ordinary hōtō elsewhere in Japan lack that element. About five hundred Kunisaki-tō are recorded, roughly ninety percent of them on the Kunisaki peninsula.
- Who built Chogi-ke Hoto, and why is the year 1321 significant?
- The inscription names Ki no Nagasada, styled Saemon-no-jō, as the patron, and dates the raising of the pagoda to the eighteenth day of the tenth month of Genkō 1 (元亨元年), that is 1321. He built it as a gyakushu monument, performing his own memorial rites during his lifetime rather than leaving them to descendants.
- How large is Chogi-ke Hoto compared with other Kunisaki-to?
- Its total height is 397 centimetres. Kunisaki City records it as the largest inscribed Kunisaki-tō that survives complete in its original form. The stone is hornblende andesite.
- What else is worth seeing near Chogi-ke Hoto?
- The Higashikataku district holds the Naru itabi, a prefecturally designated stele with inscriptions of 1319 and 1320, and the city-designated Higashikataku paired stele of 1321. Cluster tombs cut into the hillside line Route 213 nearby, and the Kunisaki-tō at Iwatoji, the oldest dated example of the type, is a short drive away.
Basic Information
| Name | Chogi-ke Hoto (長木家宝塔), stone hōtō of Kunisaki-tō type |
|---|---|
| Location | 3037 Higashikataku, Kunisaki Town, Kunisaki City, Oita Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structures), registration no. 1287 |
| Year Designated | 20 March 1954 |
| Quantity | 1 unit |
| Dimensions | Total height 397 cm; hornblende andesite; inscribed Genkō 1 (元亨元年, 1321) |
| Owner | Privately owned |
| Public Access | Outdoors, no admission charge. Located in a private family cemetery; visit with appropriate courtesy |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Chogi-ke Hoto
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3607
- Cultural Heritage Online — Chogi-ke Hoto
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/124414
- Kunisaki City — cultural properties of the Higashikataku district, with full inscription text
- https://www.city.kunisaki.oita.jp/soshiki/bunkazai/bunkazaihigasikataku.html
- Oita Cultural Properties Encyclopedia — Chogi-ke Hoto
- https://oita-digitalzukan.jp/cultural_property/長木家宝塔/
- Kunisaki-to (Japanese Wikipedia), on the regional pagoda type and its designated examples
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/国東塔
Last verified: 2026.08.20