Daianji Temple Main Hall

A Shoin-Style Hall with Kano Paintings

The Daianji Temple Main Hall (大安寺本堂) is a main hall in shoin style of the early Edo period in Daianji Temple in Sakai Ward, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on June 22, 1955 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a hall of rooms of eighteen, twelve, six, eight and three mats, the last a raised room, with an alcove and built-in desk; designation number 01346.

A Shoin-Style Hall Moved and Rebuilt

The main hall of Daianji in Sakai Ward dates from the early Edo period; one tradition holds that it is the relocated house of the great merchant Naya Sukezaemon (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency describes it as shoin-style architecture of the Momoyama period.

According to Sakai City, a six-year conservation of its wall paintings showed that the hall was moved and rebuilt in 1683, reusing many timbers of a building of the early Edo period.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

It is a hall in which the shoin-style rooms and the wall paintings of its four inner rooms, themselves an Important Cultural Property, survive together (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Sakai City).

What to Look For

Look for the shoin-style suite of rooms with its raised room (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to Sakai City, the paintings in the four inner rooms are Kano school works of the early 17th century, including a pine once famous from a prewar school textbook story.

Visiting

The hall stands within Daianji Temple. No official information on interior access or visiting was found. Check with the temple before visiting.