Myokyoji Reioden Kyooden Hall

The core of the former main sanctuary

The Myokyoji Reioden Kyooden Hall (妙教寺霊応殿経王殿, Myōkyō-ji Reiōden Kyōōden) is an 1897 hall forming part of 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 stands at the north-eastern back of the grounds, directly in front of the Reioden's inner sanctuary, rebuilt in 1741.

Until the present main sanctuary was completed in 1979, the Reioden was Saijo Inari's main place of worship. It is a chain of buildings: inner sanctuary, Kyooden, worship hall and front hall, one behind the other. When the new sanctuary was built, the temple says, the whole chain was hauled to its present site. The inner sanctuary was designated an Important Cultural Property by Okayama City in 2004; the three buildings in front are on the national register.

Kyoo, "king of sutras", refers to the Lotus Sutra and appears in the name of the main deity, Saijoi Kyoo Daibosatsu. An Okayama City article attributes the Myokyoji Reioden Kyooden Hall to Aoyama Choshichi, a master carpenter from Nagoya.

A gable front and a curving rear

The Myokyoji Reioden Kyooden Hall has a gabled roof of cypress bark, entered from the gable end, with a building area of 59 square metres and an attached corridor and small room. At the front a lower roof links it to the worship hall; at the back a projection under a curved karahafu gable reaches toward the inner sanctuary. It is the hinge of the whole chain.

Inside, the floor is laid with tatami and the ceiling is coved up at the edges into a fine coffered grid. Outside, a railed veranda runs along the front and both sides, round columns carry bracket sets with curved infill panels, and the eaves have a double layer of closely spaced rafters.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes how carefully it is finished down to the smallest detail. With the main hall, it is the Nagoya carpenter's best Meiji work at the temple. The cypress-bark roof was renewed from 2017 in a project marking 1,300 years since the birth of the founder Hoon Daishi, and the work was completed in December 2020.

What to look for, and visiting

The Myokyoji Reioden Kyooden Hall is on the upper terrace that the temple calls its cultural-property zone, and the exterior can be seen at any time, free of charge. The interior is not open to the public, though private prayer services by reservation are held in the former sanctuary.

Walk round the side of the front hall and worship hall and you see the Kyooden's gable, its curving rear projection and the roof of the 1741 sanctuary behind, stacked one over another. Look closely at the thickness of the freshly laid bark and the fine rhythm of the rafters. Opening hours and directions are on the Saijo Inari Myokyoji page.