Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate

Twelve animals around a balcony

Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate is a two-storey gate of about 1740 on the western side of the Saidaiji precinct in Higashi-ku, Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, and it joined the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2019. The plan is three bays wide with a single opening, the sangen ikko type, under an Irimoya-zukuri roof of Hongawarabuki. Its building area is 38 square meters, and the temple describes it as among the largest gates of its type in the prefecture.

Guardian figures stand behind the timber grilles in the two flanking bays. These are the Niō, the paired wrathful protectors whose open and closed mouths are read as the first and last sounds of the Sanskrit syllabary, and it is from them that the gate takes its name.

The feature that holds visitors longest sits higher up. Around all four sides of the balcony run the biwa-ita panels, and carved into them is the full cycle of twelve zodiac animals. The temple records that the sequence begins on the eastern half of the north face and proceeds east, south and west in order, so the animals can be followed around the building in the correct calendrical succession.

Two vocabularies in one gate

The registration record calls Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate a fine example of a large gate executed in Zenshūyō, the manner Japanese carpenters adapted from Song-dynasty Chinese temple building. The upper storey carries triple-stepped Mitesaki bracketing with tail rafters, and Kaerumata struts sit between the bracket units.

The temple's own account is more mixed. It describes the gate as combining Wayō, the native manner, with Zen-derived elements, listing the tail rafters, the head-tie and the bearing block above it as the Chinese-derived features and the bracketing arrangement as native. Both descriptions are looking at the same timber; they differ in where they draw the line between traditions, which is common for buildings of this date.

The balcony bracketing is what makes the zodiac panels possible. Because the supporting complex there steps out four times rather than three, the balcony projects far enough to give the carvers a continuous band of panel to work on. Ornament and structure were planned together.

Registration in 2019 was granted under the criterion of serving as a model of design. What earned it was the combination of scale and precision, a provincial commission executed to a standard that would not embarrass a metropolitan workshop.

What to look for on site

Take the zodiac slowly. Standing at the north face and walking clockwise, each animal appears in turn, and the carving quality varies enough between them to suggest more than one hand at work. Bring a zoom lens or a pair of binoculars; the panels sit well above head height and reward magnification.

Look next at the ridge. The Onigawara on the main ridge of Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate carries a repair inscription of 1770, thirty years after the gate is thought to have gone up. Its torifusuma, the tail that extends back from the tile, is drawn out into a long spiral. The temple notes that only a handful of examples of this profile survive in Okayama Prefecture, which makes the roofline worth a photograph in its own right.

The plaque hung in the opening is large and carries a seal that the temple attributes to a Zen priest known as a master calligrapher. Standing directly beneath it and looking up gives the clearest view of the underside of the upper floor.

Walking through the gate is also the intended way to arrive. Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate opens onto the short approach street that leads in from the town, and the sequence from that narrow row of buildings into the open precinct is a designed experience rather than an accident of layout.

Visiting Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate

The precinct is open around the clock, so Saidaiji Temple Niomon Gate can be passed through and photographed at any hour at no charge. Access is restricted during the Saidaiji Eyō in February, when the approach and the precinct fill with participants and spectators.

The temple's paid admission applies to the interiors of the main hall and the Gooshoden, at 500 yen for adults and 200 yen for children, received from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with 100 yen off for groups of ten or more. The upper storey of the gate is not open to visitors. The amulet and sutra-copying counter operates from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Photographing the gate, the guardian figures and the zodiac panels from ground level is unrestricted in ordinary circumstances. The temple publishes no rule on photography inside its halls, so read the notices posted at each entrance.

From Saidaiji Station on the JR Akō Line the walk takes about ten minutes. Buses from the Okayama Tenmaya Bus Centre reach Saidaiji Bus Centre in roughly 30 minutes, then it is a further ten minutes on foot. The temple maintains a car park within the grounds.