Myokyoji Reioden Front Hall

The entrance to the Reioden

The Myokyoji Reioden Front Hall (妙教寺霊応殿前殿, Myōkyō-ji Reiōden Zenden) is an 1886 building joined to the front of the worship hall in the Reioden, the former main sanctuary of Saijo Inari Myokyoji in Takamatsu Inari, Kita Ward, Okayama City; it was moved in 1979 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2009/01/08. It is the first link in the chain that runs back through the worship hall and the Kyooden to the inner sanctuary.

Its date is muddled in the national database, which gives the era year as Meiji 19 but the Western year as 1897. An Okayama City article dates the Myokyoji Reioden Front Hall to Meiji 19, the same year as the worship hall, and names its carpenter as Aoyama Choshichi of Nagoya. This article follows Meiji 19.

A curving gable and a stone floor

The Myokyoji Reioden Front Hall is long and narrow, four bays deep and one bay wide, entered from the gable end under a roof of cypress bark. The gable that faces you is itself a karahafu, curving up in the middle and sweeping out at the edges. The building area is 42 square metres.

Square posts carry simple bracket blocks, with frog-leg carvings in the bays between. Curved tie beams cross the hall, each carrying a short strut flanked by carved boards showing chrysanthemums on flowing water. The floor is paved in stone, and there is no ceiling: the rafters and roof boards are left exposed.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs says the front hall works together with the worship hall and the Kyooden to create a solemn space for worship. You walk down the stone-floored front hall, step into the open worship hall with its low board floor, and look up at the Kyooden ahead. The three are registered separately, but they were plainly designed as one sequence.

What to look for, and visiting

The Myokyoji Reioden Front Hall is in the Reioden area on the upper terrace and can be seen at any time, free of charge.

Start in front of the curving gable, then walk along the side to see the long four-bay body and the roofs of the worship hall and Kyooden stepping up behind it. Come close to make out the chrysanthemum-and-water carving beside the struts. Opening hours and directions are on the Saijo Inari Myokyoji page.