Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters

What the Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters are

Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters (上善寺庫裏, Jōzen-ji Kuri) is a late-Edo Kuri, the residence and kitchen building of Jozenji in Sakaemachi, Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture, built between 1751 and 1829 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 8, 2008, under registration number 27-0502.

A kuri is where a temple's priests live and where its meals are cooked. Izumisano City's official tourism site describes this one in exactly those terms, as living space and kitchen combined. It stands northwest of the main hall and faces south.

The ridge runs north to south under a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof in Hongawarabuki tiling, and the entrance is on the gable end, an arrangement known as Tsumairi. It is a single-storey timber building 14 metres across the front and 16 metres deep, with a building area of 322 square metres; the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a large kuri.

Smoke vent, gable framing and the case for registration

Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters were registered as a model of architectural form.

From the east side of the main block projects a second gabled roof, 5.6 metres long and 9.0 metres deep, and on its south face sits a Shikidai, a formal entrance for receiving guests kept apart from the everyday door. That entrance shows the building was more than a residence: it was also where the temple received parishioners and visiting clergy.

A small raised roof on the ridge is a smoke vent that let out the smoke from the cooking stoves. Buildings with vents like this are usually open to the rafters inside, and the tourism site singles out the tall open interior and its massive beams as the building's most striking feature.

On the front gable the structural frame is left on show: a curved Kōryō beam, vertical struts and horizontal tie beams. The carpentry itself becomes the decoration and gives the building its face when seen from the south.

What to look for

Start on the south side and look up at the whole gable. Across its 14-metre width, the arc of the curved beam and the straight struts and ties form a grid, with the little smoke-vent roof perched on the ridge above.

Then look east to the projecting wing and the formal entrance on its south face. The large gable of the main block beside the smaller gable of the wing makes the difference in rank between the two entrances easy to read.

It also helps to compare the building with the main hall. The hall covers 380 square metres and the priests' quarters 322 square metres, so the residence holds its own beside the temple's principal building.

Visiting the Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters

The exterior can be seen from the grounds during the temple's opening hours. Because it faces south, the gable is well lit for most of the day.

The building is part of the temple's living quarters, and no public opening of the interior has been announced. Do not go in uninvited; if you would like to see inside or take photographs, contact the temple in advance.

Directions to the temple and its opening hours are covered on the Jozenji page.