Jissaiji Temple

A Square Temple Precinct in the Old Village of Nakashima

Jissaiji Temple (実際寺, also written Jissai-ji) is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Nakashima district of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, whose main hall dates from 1649, and six structures in its precinct were entered on Japan's national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Structures) on December 5, 2019.

The temple sits west of central Kurashiki, at what was once the heart of Nakashima village. Its ground is laid out as a square, and the two sides that meet the road, east and north, are held by stone retaining walls with a roofed earthen wall on top. The street address is 516 Nakashima, Kurashiki, and the owner is the religious corporation of Jissaiji Temple.

The six registered items are the main hall, the guest hall (kyakuden), the bell tower, a two-storey barn, the gate (sanmon), and the outer wall with its stone embankment. Worship hall, gate, utility building and boundary wall were all taken in together, which comes close to registering the temple ground as a whole.

Six Structures Spread Across About 250 Years

Put side by side, the dates given by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Okayama Prefecture run like this.

• Main hall: built in 1649, with alterations in the early Meiji era and in 1984
• Guest hall: late Edo period, thought to be the reception wing that survived when the rest of the priests' quarters was lost
• Bell tower: dated to 1879 by its ridge tablet (Munafuda), and moved here from the cemetery on the west side of the grounds during repairs in 1926
• Barn: said to have been built around 1884
• Gate: its ridge tablet records that it was moved to this spot in 1884, while the Agency's commentary reads the gate itself as going back to the late Edo period
• Outer wall and stone embankment: middle Meiji era, between 1883 and 1897

Roughly 250 years separate the oldest item, the main hall, and the newest, the perimeter wall. The Meiji-era additions did not clear anything away to make room. The bell tower came over from the cemetery and the gate was brought in from elsewhere, and both were fitted into gaps in an existing layout. It looks like a precinct that kept its square footprint while its buildings were shifted and added to piece by piece.

The six were registered under two different criteria. According to Okayama Prefecture's summary of the recommendation, the main hall alone qualified as a building that has become a model of form, on the strength of its early Edo detailing and a firm construction date. The other five were registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country, that is, for the part they play in the scene of the precinct.

Local broadcaster KSB reported how the process began. About three years before the recommendation, a contractor who came to look at repairing the main hall roof recognised the building's value. When the recommendation came in July 2019, KSB noted that these six brought Okayama's count of registered structures to 331 items at 100 sites.

Walking the Jissaiji Temple Precinct

You enter through the gate at the southeast corner, which faces south. Walking north through it, the barn stands on your right along the east edge, facing west. It sits right beside the gate, and together the two make up the first view of the grounds.

To the left, toward the south of the precinct, is the bell tower, southeast of the main hall. Turn west and the main hall stands on the west side facing east, so a visitor meets its front coming from the east. The guest hall lies northeast of the main hall, where the northern half of the grounds begins.

The outer wall and stone embankment wrap the east and north edges and form the boundary with the road. The wall runs north from the northeast corner of the barn and turns west at the northeast corner of the site. From inside you see only its back, so step out through the gate and walk the road side to take it in. All six items stand within a few dozen metres of each other, and a full circuit is quick.

Not part of the registration, but mentioned by the Okayama Tourism Federation: a Daishi hall whose surroundings are laid out as a miniature pilgrimage route of sacred sand, and a stone marking the spot where the Confucian scholar Mishima Chushu, a native of Nakashima, had his own teeth buried while he was still alive.

Before You Visit Jissaiji Temple

Okayama Prefecture lists public access for all six structures at Jissaiji Temple as exterior only, and none of the interiors is open. Jissaiji is a parish temple serving its own members, and it publishes no admission fee or opening hours. A word with someone at the temple before walking the grounds or taking photographs is the courteous approach.

The nearest station is Nishiachi on the JR Sanyo Main Line, one stop west of Kurashiki Station. Okayama Prefecture gives the walk as about 15 minutes. The temple lies east of the station, some 600 metres in a straight line. No official parking information could be found, so check in advance if you plan to drive.

Because the outer wall and stone embankment face the road, they can be seen from outside without entering the precinct. Where best to view each building, and what applies to interiors and photography, is set out on each structure's own page.